Two Weeks In My Frozen Hell
by Kahlam
Summary: Isshin has decided to take the whole family on a vacation up in the mountains in a ski-lodge resort. A certain raven-haired Kurosaki twin, Karin, is unhappy with this. The icy-cold winds and soft fluffy snow reminds her of a certain genius. What will happen when she coincidentally sees him there? Will she stay mad at him the entire time or forgive him and maybe even fall for him?
1. Vacation?

This is my first romance fanfic so I apologize in advance if I'm too corny ^.^ Also it's been awhile since I've written anything so sorry if I'm a bit out of practice. I'd also really appreciate critique. I want to improve.

Mild Ichigo x Rukia and slight Orihime x Ishida. Rated M for language.

* * *

"I have a big surprise,"declared Isshin as he slammed down his bowl of rice on the table, causing some of it to fall out. "What is it now goat face?," the younger raven-haired Kurosaki twin asked a little suspiciously. And she had the right to be suspicious, the last time their father had an announcement they had ended up going to the county fair where he ended up puking. On Karin's brand new soccer uniform. It wasn't her fault she had practice that day and then her father unexpectedly took the family to the fair after school, giving her no time to change. Needless to say, that unfortunate incident caused her to have trust issues with her father.

Actually, she had trust issues with him before that. It was hard to trust a man who was constantly attacking you and forcing you to keep your guard up at all times.

Yeah, trust issues were his fault.

"In honor of Rukia-chan and Ichigo-kun getting accepted into the University, we're going on a vacation!"  
"Oohhh," Yuzu awed, "What a nice gift!" Rukia smiled warmly at Isshin.  
"Really, there's no need to go through all that trouble for-"  
"Nonsense! Only the very best for my Rukia-chan!"  
However, Ichigo and Karin both remained skeptical about this little "vacation."

"Where we going?" Yuzu asked excitedly.  
"Up to the mountains in a Ski-resort!" he announced.

With that, Ichigo spit out his drink.  
"What the hell!? It'll be damned cold!" he shouted. Rukia then proceeded to hit him for using such foul language. "Stop being so foul! We're at the dinner table! And you should be grateful that your father is at least taking us on a vacation!"  
"Shut up Midget! You cuss left and right!"  
"I do not! I resent that accusation!" The petite soul-reaper hit him again for the very-true accusation.  
"Dammit stop hitting me!"  
"Stop using such foul language in front of your family!"

Dinner was in uproar that night. Isshin sobbed to the picture of his beloved Masaki through the entire supper. "Our only son doesn't appreciate the wonderful things I do for him!" he repeatedly said. Yuzu was fantasizing about skiing and Rukia was chastising Ichigo for not being more grateful. Really, he was such an ungrateful brat at times. The one person who didn't mention anything was the small raven-haired twin.

The cold and snow reminded her of a certain someone.

"Excuse me." She put down her chopsticks stood up.  
All eyes turned to her. "I've lost my appetite." She turned and left the room.

Everyone's expression change to concern. "I wonder what that was about..." Rukia said softly.  
"Yeah. I wonder if something happened today?" Ichigo said as he stared at the hallway."  
"Oh Masaki! Our poor Karin-chan is being cold to us! She won't share her problems! Is it teenage hormones!? Is she going through puberty?!"

Yuzu frowned. "I doubt she'd want to share puberty problems with us."  
"Why not? We're all family aren't we?" the ever oblivious Isshin spoke. Rukia stifled a cough. "Erm, girl puberty is quite different than boys," she pointed out a little awkwardly.  
"Oh Masaki! What am I going to do without your feminism to help our poor Karin-chan!?"  
"I don't think it's puberty. I think something else is bothering Karin-chan. I'll go talk to her," Yuzu said quietly as she stood up. All eyes followed her as she walked down the same hall her sister had gone moment's ago.

Quietly, she entered her twin's room. The the two longer shared a room, seeing as Ichigo had found his own place closer to the university. Although, some nights Yuzu would go and sleep in Karin's room after a bad dream.

* * *

"Karin-chan? Are you okay?" came the soft concerned twin's voice.  
"I'm fine," came her muffled reply. Her face was buried in the pillow.  
Yuzu quietly shut the door behind her and walked into her room.

"Karin-chan, please tell me what's wrong," she said as she sat down on her bed.  
"I'm perfectly fine," came her stubborn reply. This made Yuzu smile, only slightly. _That's certainly my sister. Stubborn as ever._

"Maybe it would help if you talked?"  
"I said I'm fine. It's nothing. I'm just tired is all. We did have a really long day of soccer practice you know."  
"Alright, suit yourself."  
"I'm fine. I don't need your help."  
Finally, Yuzu sighed. She gave up on trying to help her twin. She knew that Karin was a stubborn one. If she wanted to talk, she would. The usual cheery-twin tiptoed out of the room quietly.

Karin was finally alone with her thoughts. She sighed into her pillow, not being the type of girl to cry.  
And definitely not the type of girl to cry over a _guy. _She was more of the type to kick a guy's ass. Especially if he upset her. Granted, Karin was not usually upset by guys. She never really was interested in such trivial matters.

"What a bastard," she growled. She threw her pillow at the wall with a cry of frustration. "Ugh!"  
_Damn him for leaving without a goodbye. He went and got me all upset. Fuckin' bastard. Fuck him!_

"I hate you!" she yelled to no one in particular. Then she threw her other pillow at the door. Now she was left with no more pillows.  
Sighing she got up at picked up her pillow. _It's not his fault, you know that. He has duties. Just like Rukia. _

At this she frowned. _At least Rukia hangs out. But, her circumstances are different. She isn't a captain and she has to check-up on Ichigo. Stop being so unreasonable. You know he can't just drop everything and come and visit you. It's not his fault. And it's not like you like him anyway. He's just a smug bastard who's cold-hearted and cocky. But he's also got a side to him that's nice and car- _

With another 'Ugh' she flopped back on her bed with her pillow over her face. She hated being conflicted over this.  
_He could've at least said goodbye._

"Damn bastard. It's his fault."

* * *

The "Ughs" and pillow throwing coming from Karin's room caused her family even more concern. "She sounds really upset," Ichigo muttered.  
"Don't worry Ichi-nii. Karin-chan will feel better soon. She always fixes her problems and never leaves anything bothering her for too long," Yuzu said optimistically with a small smile.

"I hope you're right," he muttered.  
"Anyhow, Yuzu would you please tell your sister she needs to pack by tomorrow? As a matter of fact you all need to pack by tomorrow," Isshin sprang upon them.

"What the hell!? That means it'll take all night!"  
"Well then you'll just have to hurry won't you?" Rukia said with a scowl.  
"Why are you being so mean midget..." Ichigo sighed a little dejectedly.

"Oh Masaki, our son and Rukia-chan are already acting like a married couple!"  
"We are not a couple!" they both shouted.  
Yuzu chuckled at their tomato red faces. It was quite adorable actually. It was clear the two had feelings for each other but neither one of them would just outright admit it.

"Hmm, I wonder if Karin-chan is having love troubles?" Yuzu suddenly wondered.  
"What makes you say that?" Rukia inquired.  
"Well just the way you and Ichi-nii acting made me wonder. Perhaps that's why she's being a pessimist about this trip. Maybe she has to leave a secret boyfriend?"

Rukia sputtered, unsure what to say. Ichigo found a sudden interest in the ceiling and Isshin continued sobbing to his poor Masaki. "If Karin-chan has a secret boyfriend why can't she bring him home? Is she that embarrassed of us Masaki?"

Poor Karin was left to her tortured mind. Tortured by the thoughts of _him. _The white-haired genius also known as Toshiro Hitsugaya. Or currently known to Karin as "bastard."

What a long night of packing that was.

* * *

I know this chapter is kinda boring but later chapters will be better ^.^  
So I hope this wasn't too bad or too short. Critique is appreciated and very much needed.


	2. That's My Side!

Second Chapter -3- Hope you enjoy this one a bit more.

* * *

Five people stuffed in a tiny car with luggage made an unhappy Karin.  
As if she wasn't already bummed about this trip anyway.

_A whole two week of shivering my ass off in the snow. Wonderful. _The unhappy Kurosaki just muttered to herself the whole way there, arms crossed with a scowl on her face. Any attempts to cheer up were futile. Even Yuzu's ever happy-go-lucky personality had no effect on her.

She was one stubborn woman.

The substitute shinigami however was not as upset about the trip as before. Luckily, he had someone to talk some sense into him. He was though, unhappy with the car ride.

"Oh stop complaining Ichigo!" Rukia-chan smugly said. All the poor man could do was shoot glares at her. She may be a small woman who loved drawing bunnies, but she was a force to be reckoned with.  
"Shut up! You're riding shotgun! You aren't squished in the back!"  
"Ichi-nii, do we really take up that much space?" Yuzu said, a little pucker on her lip forming. If he kept using that excuse, he'd risk the danger of Yuzu mad at him for the whole trip. A mad Yuzu was worse than Satan.

"Will you all please shut up? You aren't making this trip any better," Karin muttered under her breath. Only the ever-angelic Yuzu caught what she said.  
She turned on her with that pout to.  
"Karin-chann..." she began.  
"I was only joking! I swear!" she shouted defensively, putting her heads up in surrender.  
Even she knew not to mess with Yuzu, the half-angel and half-devil child.

Karin then resorted to leave the bitching in her head. A much better thing to do.

* * *

"Woo Heeer!" Isshin shouted, muffled by his scarf. After realizing he still had on his scarf up, muffling his replies he quickly pulled it down. "Ahem, we're here!" he repeated, dropping his bags on the floor.  
Everyone awed at the place. One couldn't deny it was good-looking and had a very homely feel. Even Karin seemed to be impressed. There was a warm fireplace and couches scattered throughout the room. The desk was nearby the stairs so it didn't seem out of place. The floor was covered in carpets, mostly animal pelts. There was a bear's head upon the wall above the fireplace. It creeped a lot of people out, especially Orihime.  
"Are they here?" came a very familiar voice.  
"Oh! They are!" squealed Orihime as she walked down the stairs.  
"Orihime!? What are you doing here?" Ichigo asked, surprised at the sight of his orange haired friend.  
"What it look like Kurosaki-kun? We're on vacation to," grumbled Ishida, coming up behind Orihime.  
Isshin grinned wildly. "You see, I thought I'd invite your friends along. Since our car was so crowded, they came in their own!" he said as he beamed, obviously pleased with himself.

The last of them came down the stairs. A few friends from Soul-Society and a couple more from the human world. Renji, Chad, Keigo, Mizuiro, Tatsuki, Matsumoto and finally, Hitsugaya.  
Ichigo's gaped at them all, surprised. "How'd you get excused from your duties?"  
"Oh, Urahara pulled some strings for us," Renji said with a grin.

Karin stared at Hitsugaya. _He looks so different, his hair is less spiky, he's taller..._  
She couldn't find any words to say. Even if she could, she would have said nothing. She was angry at him anyway. Rather she just wanted to kick him where the sun doesn't shine. But at the same time she so badly wanted to say something to him. She hadn't seen him in so long.

Hitsugaya looked among the faces of the Kurosaki family. Finally his eyes rested on Karin. The two stared at each other without a word. Finally, Karin scowled at him and crossed her arms, daring him to say something.  
One particular lieutenant noticed her captain and Kurosaki having a stare down. She chuckled quietly to herself.  
"Let's go to our rooms and unpack! Let's see...who's rooming together?"

Matsumoto grinned. She already had a scheme cooked up and it had already been set in motion.  
"Ichigo and Chad. Tatsuki, Orihime. Rukia and Yuzu. Yoruichi and me. Ishida and Renji. Keigo and Mizuiro. Hitsugaya and Karin. Isshin with Urahara. Urahara will be here soon."  
A little black cat waltzed into the ski-lodge as if on cue. It seemed to find an interest in the group conversing near-by. It gave a big meow as it walked up to them, rubbing up against their legs. This little black cat was obviously Yoruichi. If she was here, Urahara was bound to be near-by. With that, Orihime picked her up. "Hello Yoruichi!" she piped, completely oblivious to her hissing.

Karin sputtered, "Wait what? I'm rooming with _him?_ He's a guy!"  
"Wha-! Kurosaki! Do you think so ill of me!?" Hitsugaya shouted, getting red-faced.  
"Oh come on! Guys are perverts!" Karin said, rolling her eyes. All the men with them protested and shouted, "Hey!" Except for the ever-silent Chad. "There's no way I can room with him! None! Zero! Zip! Nada!"

"Matsumoto why can't Karin room with you?" Hitsugaya said in a normal voice, glaring at his lieutenant. He had no doubt she had intended this on purpose.  
"Well it's not as if you're sleeping in the same bed you two! Unless you're suggesting something," she said slyly, raising one eyebrow.  
"They're far too young to be doing anything!" Isshin shouted, "How could you suggest such a thing!" Ichigo shot daggers in Toshiro's direction. "If you try anything with Karin, I will bankai your ass." Toshiro protested, saying it was an absurd and inappropriate thing for a squad captain to even think about. "I'm not going to do anything! That's inappropriate! I do have some decency!"  
Toshiro and Karin were both red-beat at this point. Everyone else was either, embarrassed, giggling, or awkwardly staring at the ceiling.  
"It's too late now. We've already put now the names for the rooms and unpacked," Renji interrupted. Karin grumbled, grabbing her bags and stalking up the stairs.  
"Karin-chan, yours _and_ Hitsugaya's room is downstairs in this hall," Matsumoto pointed with a chuckle, emphasizing on the and, getting her point across. This embarassed Karin even further. "Oh crying out loud!" She stalked down the stairs and down the hall.  
"The room is 5B by the way!" the match-maker Rangiku shouted as Karin stalked down the hallway.

* * *

Karin grumbled to herself as she opened the door, surprised to find that actually was unlocked. _How strange. I wonder if they left it unlocked for me? _She entered the room, glancing around it. It wasn't as nice as the waiting room, or rather the living room as Karin called it. _Of course. It must be expensive rooming this many people. I guess it was cheaper to get one room for two people instead of three people for one room. _

With a sigh claimed the left side so she could see the TV better. It was obvious Toshiro hadn't chosen his yet. Throwing her heavy Jacket and sweater onto the bed, Karin began unpacking, putting clothes in the drawers. Someone from the outside knocked on the door before coming in. Toshiro Hitsugaya strode into the room, no surprise there. He glanced at Karin and then noticed she was putting in panties in her drawers. He blushed a light shade of red and looked away.  
"Get used to it. You're rooming with me for two weeks," she smirked, shutting the drawer, finally finished with all her packing.

"Good grief Karin. At least I have the decency to look away," came his grumbling reply as he walked over to his side. He tripped over his unpacked bags and planted his face right on the floor. "Ahahah!" The Kurosaki twin burst out laughing. "Genius my ass! You aren't genius at all! You tripped over your own bags!"  
"There's no need to rub it in!" he muttered as he stood up. "I was too busy to unpack my bags!"

Finally Karin quit laughing. Her smile changed into another scowl. She suddenly remembered why she was mad at him. "Hmph." She grabbed a towel, stalking into the bathroom. "I'm taking a shower. No peeking," she glared, dead serious. Then she slammed the door loudly. _I can't believe I have to room with this bastard for two weeks._ Karin cursed his very name and wished pain and suffering upon him as she turned on the water faucets. _Why'd he even come here anyway?__  
_

"What's her problem?" Hitsugaya muttered.  
Then his mind wandered. The image of her panties kept flashing in his mind. He so badly wanted to claw out his eyes so he could have never seen them in the first place.  
"Augh!" he cried out, embarrassed. His face was slightly pink and he tore his gaze away from Karin's drawers. _Stop thinking of inappropriate things! _ _  
_

* * *

The icy cold shinigami lounged on Karin's bed, flipping through the channels. He yawned, bored. Only Toshiro Hitsugaya, 10th squad captain, could be bored on vacation.  
The steam coming from the bathroom finally dispersed and the water faucets were turned off.  
After some rummaging and knocking things over, Karin finally walked out of the bathroom with her towel tied tightly around her body and another towel tied around her hair.

"Toshiro, that's my side!" she growled, crossing her arms.  
"So? You were showering," he yawned.  
"That doesn't mean you can take my side!" she scowl, placing her arms on her hips.  
"I'm just watching some TV."  
The two continued their bickering until finally Karin got fed up.  
"Dammit Toshiro! Give me my damn side!" she said, furious now. The ever-calm smug captain didn't bother with a reply. He just turned up the volume on the TV.

Finally Karin just grabbed the remote from him. "Hey!" he protested.  
"My side."  
"You're going back into the bathroom to change anyway!"  
"And I want you off my side so that I can lay here when I come back!"  
When two stubborn people fight, usually it lasts awhile. In Karin and Hitsugaya's case, it could last an entire day. Stubborn brats they were.  
With a frown Karin crossed her arms at him, distracted by a question nagging at her mind.  
"Why'd you come here? This isn't your type of thing."  
"Matsumoto dragged me here. She keeps telling me I need a break from my work."  
"Oh."

Hitsugaya saw her distraction and took the chance. He reached up and grabbed the remote back. He grinned triumphantly at her. This of course, made Karin even madder. The white-haired bastard then placed the remote behind him. "Nu-uh. I don't think so," he grinned, obviously thinking he'd won. "You shouldn't get distracted so easily."

"Oh no you don't!"

Karin, forgetting she was in a towel, tried to wrestle it away from him. She tried lifting him up and reaching her arm behind his back, everything. All these attempts loosened up her towel, until finally it came loose and fell to the floor.  
Hitsugaya took one glance at her and averted his eyes by covering them with his hands. He was now blushing furiously. "You idiot!" he shouted.  
"AUGH! YOU PERVERT!" she screamed, grabbing her towel and running back into the bathroom, embarrassed. Great, the first day of vacation and she'd already been embarrassed in front of everyone and especially Toshiro.  
Poor Toshiro, he was now scarred for life.  
Or maybe blessed. Few guys would ever get to see _that._

* * *

Poor Karin, vacation's just stared and she's already had too many embarrassing events. So I hope this chapter was better, a bit more HitsuKarin interaction.


	3. Snowboarding Sucks

Third Chapter ^.^ Don't get used to me updating so quickly :P. I'll be busy soon enough.

I don't own Bleach or any of the characters. (Obviously. If I did, there'd be more HitsuKarin Episodes) Oh and just a reminder, Italics are their thoughts in case that wasn't clear.

* * *

That first night was the hardest. It was so difficult to sleep with a snoring bastard on the other side of the room. Grumbling Karin scooted further on her bed, trying to get as far as possible from him, even though he was in a completely different bed on the other side of the room. "Damn bastard," she muttered under her breath. With a sigh, she sat up and walked over towards the window. Well, it was more of a sliding clear door. The wood creaked slightly as she stepped outside, revealing they were older than they looked. _Damn, it's cold. __  
_

_What a nice view. The snow on the mountains look so lovely. _Karin held out her hand and touched the snow on the wooden rails of the deck.

She shivered, pulling her arm back and clutching her arms closer to her. _I should've brought a jacket.  
_"Here." An unexpected voice said behind her. Before she could whip around to see who it belonged to, she felt something warm and heavy on her shoulders.

It was Captain Hitsugaya's haori. She turned around, confused. "I thought you were asleep."  
"That was my gigai. There were some hollows nearby so I took care of them."  
"He falls asleep fast," Karin muttered.

"Anyway, what are you doing out here? It's cold."  
"None of your business." Without even realizing it, Karin was clutching his haori tightly, shrinking inside it to escape the cold.  
Quickly she realized what she was doing and then took it off angrily. "I don't want your damn help!" she shouted.

Confused, Hitsugaya gazed at her with a dumbfounded expression. "Karin, what's wrong?"  
"Nothing that's what! And even if there was, it's no business of yours!" She then threw his haori at him and stomped back inside. Karin jumped back into her bed and jerked the covers over her head angrily. _Bastard! Does he think he can act so nice to me after he fucking left without goodbye!? _

As smart as Hitsugaya was, he'd never understand Karin and her mood-swings. He stood out there for a few more moments, dumbfounded. _Guess that what's what I get for trying to be nice. _Sighing, he stepped back into the room wordlessly and stepped back into his gigai without bothering to try and talk to Karin. He knew from experience how stubborn she was. She'd talk if she wanted to talk.

* * *

"This is fun!" Yuzu shouted gleefully. She was skiing down the slope like a pro. It'd only been a couple of hours and she had already gotten in the hang of it.  
Unfortunately, Karin was not as lucky. She was on the other side of the mountain with Renji, Keigo and Yoruichi trying to snowboard. Everyone else was either watching, skiing or doing their own thing. Their instructor obviously believed in hands on experience or really enjoyed watching people fall on their faces. "Bend your knees!" "Don't fall!" "Don't go into the trees!" He wasn't really the best instructor.

Karin sat up after falling flat into the snow. "I HATE SNOW!" she cried out.  
"Oh c'mon Karin. It isn't that bad!" Yoruichi said with a chuckle as she slid down to help.  
"Easy for you to say. You're getting in the hang of it," Karin grumbled as she took Yoruichi's hand. Her face was left stinging with cold bitterness.  
"What can I say? I have the balance of a cat," she said with a wink.  
"At least you're not as bad as Keigo!" Renji shouted as he whipped by them. "Show-off," Karin muttered.  
"He's right. Look at Keigo," Yoruichi deadpanned, pointing behind her with her thumb.  
"Hm?"

Poor Keigo couldn't even go forward without falling flat onto his face. He was definitely worse than Karin. Probably worse than anyone else on the whole mountain. He was still at the top, trying to get down the mountain without falling. He didn't succeed one bit. He probably would've been better off skiing with Mizurio.

Just then Hitsugaya came by, shredding down the mountain, making all the jumps. He even managed to throw in a couple of tricks. Classic Hitsugaya, succeeding in everything.  
"I swear, you'd never think he's a amatuer," Karin said in awe as she watching him. Even she, as mad as she was at him, could not help but still be impressed.  
"Well he does have an ice-type zanpakuto. He's probably used to ice and snow and how it works. Rukia is actually pretty good at skiing too," Yoruichi commented. "Not to mention, he is a genius as well."  
"The only thing he is good at is being a bastard!" Karin nearly shouted while clutching her fists, angry again. The purple-haired woman held up her hands in surrender. "Alright. Don't get your panties in a twist."  
"My panties are not in a twist!" Karin shouted. She then proceeded to sled down the mountain.  
Forgetting about the basics of sledding in her anger, she didn't bend her knees on the first jump.

Instead she landed with her face in the snow for probably the 50th time that day.  
"I HATE SNOW AND SLEDDING AND THIS DAMN MOUNTAIN!" she shouted with a mouthful of snow.  
"Here," Hitsugaya made his way towards Karin and extended his hand towards her. Karin made a face at him, like he was the plague or something. "I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!" she shouted, pushing herself off the ground. After a few glances, she found her snowboard nearby and grabbed it. _Stupid Snowboard. Stupid Hitsugaya. This vacation blows. _  
"Wait!" the white-haired bastard grabbed her arm. "What do you want!" she scornfully said as she jerked her arm away from him. "Why are you so mad at me!? What did I do to you?"  
"Damn you Toshiro Hitsugaya! You don't even know!? God, I hate you. You're trying to act so helpful and you're just really a show-off. You're just showing off for your fangirls!"  
"What the hell are you talking about Kurosaki!?"  
"Those fangirls!" Karin pointed to a group of girls giggling on the side, close-by but not in the way of the snowboarders.  
"That's not what I meant!"  
"Just leave me alone!" Karin shouted a little too loudly. This brought on the attention of Yoruichi, Renji, and Hitsugaya's fangirls and a few people nearby.

Karin finally made her escape by stomping off.  
Unfortunately as she was stomping off, her foot caught on an unsuspecting branch and she tripped, falling face-forward into the snow, again. "Waa-" Luckily, her face was already red from the cold, so it was unable to tell if it was red from blushing. Although she did feel her face heat up.  
She got right back up, not bothering to brush off the snow. With a "hmph," she started marching off again. She'd be damned if a little twig stopped her in her rage.

* * *

Grumbling, Karin sipped her hot-cocoa furiously. In her anger, she forgot that it that it was called hot for a reason.  
"HOT!" she cried out, sticking out her scorned tongue.  
"Karin-chan, you should more careful," Yuzu spoke as she blew on her hot-chocolate.  
Karin said nothing as she set down her hot-cocoa on the table nearby. The two twins were the only ones in the living room of the ski-resort. The usual clerk was off on her lunch break.

"If you'd pulled up your scarf while you were snowboarding your face wouldn't be so red Karin-chan," Yuzu said with a chuckle.  
"Well it felt like it was suffocating me," Karin shot back as she rubbed her hands together in attempt to get warmer.  
"Karin-chan, if you're cold there's a blanket right there," Yuzu pointed out. "And a fireplace."  
"That blanket is probably for looks. Besides, I'm not that cold anyway."  
Yuzu shrugged as if to as, 'suit yourself.' Karin, finally giving into the cold, got off the soft brown couch and into the chard wooden floor. She scooted up a bit closer to the fire in attempt to get warmer. "Karin-chan, what's this I hear about you and Hitsugaya arguing today?" Yuzu inquired casually while plopping in a few marshmallows into her hot-cocoa.  
Karin immediately stiffened. "Who told you?"  
"Yoruichi told me."  
"It's no big deal," Karin mumbled as she held up her hands to the fire.  
"You're fighting with your _boyfriend. _I haven't seen you talk to him once since this vacation started. Not mention, as soon as Dad announced we were going on vacation you immediately got upset."  
"Hitsugaya is NOT my boyfriend!" Karin whipped around, defensively.  
"Are you sure about that Karin-chan?"  
"I think this fire needs more sticks," Karin said, not looking her sister in the eye. She stood up, brushing her pants with her hands.  
She started on her way towards her room when Yuzu spoke up again.  
"That's a fake fire. It has a switch." For probably the hundredth time, Karin's face turned red, again.

Her face would probably be red for the whole two weeks.  
"Whatever Yuzu."

With a sigh, Yuzu glanced at the abandoned hot-cocoa on the glass table. "Karin is so forgetful when she's embarrassed," she murmured whilst sipping her hot-cocoa.

* * *

Gah, I'm sorry this chapter is so short .  
I am ashamed of my short chapters. I promise, they'll get longer.


	4. Too Damn Sick

Wow I have a lot of spare time. It is summer after all. Hopefully I'll be able to update this much when school starts.  
Anyway, I don't own Bleach or any characters.

* * *

"A-a-achoo!"  
"Oy..." Karin grabbed a tissue, feeling another sneeze coming on.  
"Acchoo!"

Frustrated, Karin groaned and practically threw her face into her pillow.  
"Kurosaki, are you sick?" Hitsugaya asked as he came out of the bathroom.  
"No! People are just talking about me behind my back!"  
"Do you really believe that ridiculous superstition?"  
"I refuse to get sick on vacation."

With a frown, Hitsugaya made his way over towards Karin and placed his hand on her forehead.  
Karin was fine until she noticed one thing.  
He was shirtless...  
Her face immediately heated up and she pushed him away. "Put on a shirt you jerk!"  
"Oh, but 'Get used to it, you're rooming with me for two weeks,'" he said mimicking Karin's voice.  
_So two can play that game._  
Grabbing the hardest pillow she had, she threw it at him with such force that would've hurt a normal person. But unfortunately for her, he was a shinigami squad captain.

He caught it with ease and just frowned at her. "Don't act so surprised. I did just get out of the shower."  
"Augh, I hate you."  
"Why are you mad at me?" he finally asked.  
"None of your business."  
"Yes it is."  
"Just leave me- acchoo!" Karin got thrown into another sneezing fit.  
"Bless you," he said. Karin just glared. Somehow, even his sincerity came off as smug.  
"I don't need your 'bless yous.'"  
"Why won't you tell me what's wrong?"  
"Because it's none of your business!" The little violent Kurosaki threw another pillow out him. She would've thrown more but now she was out of ammo.  
Sighing, Toshiro just set the pillows on the end of her bed and went back into the bathroom.

One thing was clear though, he'd find out why she was mad at him, sooner or later.  
Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have cared. He wasn't the nosey type and usually didn't care about people's personal lives. But this was Karin Kurosaki. And she was mad at _him. _

* * *

With a few coughs and a few 'achoos' Karin groaned and plopped back onto the couch.  
"Karin are you alright?" Ichigo asked concerned.  
"I'm _fine,_" she said through gritted teeth, holding back a cough.  
Everyone was in the living room except for goat-face. He was nowhere to be found.  
"No she's not," Hitsugaya said, glaring at her. And she glared right back.  
"Shut the hell up!" she snapped, grabbing the couch pillow and throwing it him. He, once again caught it with another sigh.  
"Are you done throwing pillows at me?"  
"I wouldn't have to throw pillows at you if you'd put on a shirt!"  
"I just got out of the bathroom! And who was it that said, "Deal with it?""  
Ichigo cut into their bickering right then and there with a glare directed at the cold shinigami. "You were _shirtless?"_  
"I just got out of the bathroom!" he defended himself.  
Urahara whipped out his fan and grinned. Nothing good ever happens when he starts to grin. Or has his fan out. Or when he's there. Actually, nothing good ever happens with him. Period.

"Kurosaki, are you and Hitsugaya-taicho flirting shamelessly?" he said, feigning innocence. Matsumoto, enjoying her captain squirm, spoke up as well. "Oh my captain! Could it be that you _like _Karin-chan?"  
"MATSUMOTO!" they both shouted in sync, while their faces were red-beat. Karin turned towards that hat-wearing-hiding-behind-his-fan bastard and shot daggers at him while he was smugly grinning.  
Ichigo was doing the same thing to Toshiro Hitsugaya. Except he would actually carry out his threat Hitsugaya by all means.  
"Acchoo!" Another sneeze interrupted the two's stare-down.  
"Karin, are you sick?"  
"I'm fine Ichi-nii!"

"Would you stop that!?" Hitsugaya finally exploded, dropping the pillow he was holding onto the floor. Everyone in the room stared at him in surprise.  
"You're always acting like you're fine when it's totally clear you aren't. It's so obvious you're sick! It's just like the time you tried to play soccer with a hurt knee! Damn it Kurosaki, don't you know when to shut up and back down?!"  
"Oh shut up! Why should you care anyway!? It's none of your damn business!"  
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know it was a crime to care about your friends!"  
"Friend!? I'm your _friend?!"  
_"Why is it so hard for you to accept help!?"  
"Oh really you're lecturing me on accepting help from people!? Take a damn look at yourself! You feel like you have to do everything alone! I bet everyone else here would say the same thing!"

By now, everyone was slowly slinking away as the two continued their fighting. Ichigo had wanted to step in and stop them but Rukia forcibly dragged him away, muttering about how it wasn't nice to butt into the affairs of others. Especially love affairs.  
The two, so focused on their argument didn't noticed when everyone except the clerk had disappeared. The clerk was hunched over her desk while popping her bubblegum and watching the two fight.

"Karin why won't you tell me why you're so mad!?"  
"Oh the great Toshiro Hitsugaya actually _cares. _You actually lost your cool over this, well done!"  
By now the two were nose-to-nose.  
"Karin just tell me!" The tenth squad captain had already lost his patience and his cool over this. He'd be damned if he didn't find out why she was mad.

"Just leave me alone!" Karin shouted as she pounded a fist on his chest.  
"Karin!" He grabbed her wrists and his expression softened as he gazed at her.  
"Please tell me what's wrong," he asked softly, his expression pleading.  
This was something that Karin had never seen before. She's seen him smile in the rarest of moments. She's seen him happy and sad, even in their short time they've spent together. But never, has she seen an expression like this etched into his face. He was almost begging her to tell him.

"Just leave me alone..." she jerked her arms away from him and stomped back to her room.  
Matsumoto stood in the other room, peeking in the doorway as the two had fought. She watched Karin stomp off and watched her captain snap in frustration. She took a look at her captain and decided. She was a determined woman and she would get those two together.

And she would be damned if she didn't get the two together.

* * *

"Acchoo!"  
It had been two days since Karin had gotten her cold. And it had only gotten worse.  
_Damn this weather. Damn the cold. Damn Hitsugaya. Damn it all! Worst Vacation ever..._

The raven-haired girl sat over a humidifier that her Ichi-nii was kind enough to get for her. She made a mental note to thank him later.

"Karin-chan are you feeling any better?" came a voice from the door. The sick girl looked up to find the ditzy Orihime with a hot steamy cup of who-knows-what.  
"Oh hey Orihime. You shouldn't worry yourself about me. I'm fine, it's just a cold," she said weakly.  
"You're not every convincing Kairn-chan," she grumbled as she made her way towards Hitsugaya's bed. As she sat down, she handed the sickly girl her "remedy" for cold.  
Which was just basically bunch of food together and not a remedy at all. More like poison. Food poisoning.

"Here you go Karin-chan. I made you something for your cold!"  
"Uhh...thanks." Suspicious, and wanting to be safe and not wanting to die, she decided to leave the drink on the nightstand beside her bed.  
"So, what's this about you and Hitsugaya-taicho?"  
"There's nothing between me and Toshiro!" she grumbled, her blanket falling off her head. With a scowl, she set the blanket back in place.

"Accchoo!" She sneezed with such force, her blanket fell of again. By now her hair was sticking up all over the place from the blanket. Karin, being sick, really didn't care about her appearance anyhow.  
"Alright. But from the looks it, you sound like you're mad at him. Would you like to talk about it?  
"No. I'm not mad. I'm just..." She trailed off, suddenly interested in the blanket. She started fiddling with it, avoiding looking the ditzy girl in the eye.

"Karin, I really think you should tell Hitsugaya-taicho why you're mad at him. He is frustrated you know," she said gently.  
"Did Matsumoto put you up to this?" Karin suddenly accused. What Orihime had said was not like her usual self at all. Surely someone had put her up to it? This seemed much more like Matsumoto's doing.  
"Uhm-uhhh, maybe?" She suddenly blushed and grew flustered at the accusation. "Well, you see- Um, not really."  
Orihime could not tell a lie. She was simply to nice.

Sighing, Karin just tsked at her. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Doesn't Matsumoto know better than to mind her own business? And Orihime, I expected better from you."  
"Well, Matsumoto's my friend you see- and she asked me to do this favor for her. How could I refuse?" She nervously grinned, tapping her two index fingers toward each other. She was not prepared to suffer Karin's wrath.

Of course Karin wouldn't do anything to Orihime. If anything, Matsumoto was to blame. Taking an advantage of Orihime's kindness like that.

"It's fine Orihime. But give this message to Matsumoto for me, okay? Tell her, TO MIND HER OWN BUSINESS OR I'LL KICK A SOCCER BALL IN HER FACE!"  
"O-okay. I'll be sure to tell her!" She gave a nervous chuckle before heading out the door.

"What am I going to do about Matsumoto? Knowing her, she isn't gonna give up," Karin muttered to herself.  
_I am too fucking sick for all this. Too damn sick to be messing with Matsumoto.  
_

"Too damn sick!"  
"Achhooo!"

* * *

Karin's still mad and has a cold .  
Poor Karin.

Anyway, I promise that the cute lovey-dovey stuff will come soon.  
Well, about love-dovey as Hitsugaya and Karin can get.


	5. Who are you?

Thank to everyone who's reviewed/followed/favorited c:  
I'm really motivated to continue this.

Anyhow, on with the story. I do not own Bleach or the characters.

* * *

"Acchoo!"  
"Who would've thought, that the great Toshiro Hitsugaya, tenth squad _captain, _genius shinigami, could catch a cold?"  
"It's not that surprising. We are sharing the same room. A gigai will function exactly like a normal human body which means I can get sick to."  
"Pfft, aren't you supposed to have a strong immune system or something?"  
"Yeah, but that means nothing if you sneeze on my face. And actually, Soul Reapers can get sick to."  
"Okay that was an accident!" she defended herself, recalling the incident where she had locked the room door and Hitsugaya couldn't get in. After she had opened the door she sneezed in his face. Oops.

"A-achoo!" They both sneezed at the same time. Now that they were both sick, they were trapped in the room all day. Of course, when you have a cold, it doesn't exactly help to go outside when you're on the mountain and it's covered in snow and cold as hell.  
Yeah, so much for not getting sick on vacation.

"Don't you have an ice-type zanpakuto so you're always cold?"  
"It's actually more of my reiatsu that causes me to seem like a cold person. So when I came here the cold didn't bother me because it usually never does."  
"Then you aren't cold because I got you sick?"  
"No. The only thing I really have is a stuffy nose and feel like crap."  
"Makes sense I guess."  
The two of them sneezed again.

_Oh great. Now that he's sick I'm stuck with him all day. Could this get any worse? _  
"Can I use the humidifier now?"  
"No! Ichi-nii got it for _me._" The girl wrapped her arms around it defensively, getting her face too close to the steam.  
"Ahh!" she cried out, flinching away and holding her nose. "Damn steam. Burned my stupid nose," she muttered.

"Karma," Toshiro scoffed.  
"Oh shut up! Karma isn't real! Take the damn thing," Karin muttered nasally, still holding her nose.  
Instead, Toshiro got up and sat down on Karin's bed. "Or we could share it. Neither of us will have to suffer."  
"Wha-" Karin quickly looked away so she wouldn't have to face the embarrassment. She felt her face heating up again.  
_My face should just stay red this whole vacation instead. Why is Toshiro such a charming bastard?_

"You never told me why you were mad at me," he spoke, breaking Karin's train of thought.  
_Oh. So that's why. He just wants to know why I'm mad at him. No wonder he's using his "charm." _

Karin cursed herself for letting her guard down. She was mad at him dammit! She was going to stay mad. No matter how much charm or how nice he seemed was going to change that.

"It's frankly none of your damn business," Karin grumbled, scooting away from him.  
"That makes no sense because you're mad at me. Just tell me. It's been so frustrating these past days because you won't tell me."  
"You're the genius, you should figure it out." With a sigh, Toshiro decided to use his last resort.  
He'd need a dose of dignity after this.

"Karin," he began.  
'What?" she grumbled, turning towards him. He then leaned in forward- "Achoo!"  
Only to be sneezed on.

"What the hell Toshiro!?" Her blush was now even redder. Her rosy cheeks didn't go unnoticed by Hitsugaya, though he said nothing.  
He grabbed a kleenex from the box on the nightstand.  
"I was leaning over to get a tissue Kurosaki," he grumbled, wiping his face off.  
_Damn it. She had to go and sneeze on my face. So much for that plan. At least I didn't have to go through with it. She'd never let me live it down. _

"S-sorry," Karin stuttered as she watched him wipe off the yucky snot off his face.  
Had it been anyone else that sneezed on him like this, he would've yelled at them. But by now, he was used to the Kurosaki family's antics so this wasn't all that surprising. She had sneezed on him before. However he was still particularly annoyed. Although it was partially his fault. Still, she could have at least sneezed into her arm.

"It's fine. Although, if you could sneeze it your arm it would be _greatly _appreciated."  
The two sat in silence for a few minutes, listening to the hum of the humidifier.

Karin focused on the steam coming out, watching it disperse into the air. Wild thoughts running in circles in her mind.  
_He isn't giving up. He really wants to know why I'm mad. Maybe I should just tell him...no! No, he doesn't deserve to know. And I wouldn't accept his apology anyway. But, I mean I can't stay mad at him forever can I? _

Her tug-of-war inside her mind was interrupted as Toshiro stood up.  
"I'm going outside."  
"You do that Toshiro," she said curtly, her anger returning.

She watched him step outside with a scowl. She continued to watch him, unable to tear her gaze away from his face. She watched that little smug bastard stand outside in the freezing cold in just pajamas.  
_It's really weird to see him in pajamas...AUGH! Don't think about him. Don't think, don't think, don't think.  
_

With another growl of anger she turned away from him and grabbed the remote. Figuring tv would take her mind of things, she flipped through the channels.

"Hm?" Out of the corner of her eye, she caught something. Turning away from the tv, she saw Matsumoto in her shinigami uniform, talking to Toshiro. Judging from the serious look on her face, Karin figured it was serious.  
_Probably some Soul Society stuff going on. Ichi-nii will probably handle it. _

_Hm? What's going on now?  
_It looked like Hitsugaya had gotten mad at Matsumoto and started shouting. Karin wouldn't tell what they are arguing about, their shouting muffled through the glass.

* * *

"No Matsumoto!"  
"But Captain! We should prepare her-"  
"The girl is on vacation and sick. Might I add, she got me sick to no thanks to you."  
"But it would be better if we warned her. We could go ahead and start training her. Urahara said that her spiritual pressure is growing and soon she'll attract hollows! We've already attracted a lot on the mountain."  
"That's because there are too many soul reapers here. I told you, a vacation was a bad idea. There's me, a captain, Ichigo, who is on the same level as a captain, Urahara, who was a captain, Isshin, who was also a captain and not to mention Kurosaki's group of friends. We were bound to attract hollows regardless."  
"Karin-chan is going to be a shinigami soon. Don't you want to train her so that she won't die?"  
"Urahara will take care of her training. She is the brother of Ichigo Kurosaki. She won't die so easily. She can take care of a low-level hollow with just her soccer ball. Besides what could I do? She doesn't have her zanpakuto."  
"But Captain-"  
"Enough! Say nothing of this to her. That's an order. She shouldn't have to spend her vacation worrying about when she gets back."  
Hitsugaya spun on his heal and marched back into the room. He did not feel like fighting with his lieutenant now of all times.  
"A-a-achoo!"

"So what was that about?" Karin asked curiously.  
"It was just Matsumoto telling me she's going out for a drink. Honestly, I don't know why that woman became a Soul Reaper. She doesn't take her duties seriously," he lied as he reached for a tissue.

_Matsumoto never tells Toshiro when she's going out for a drink. Something else is going on.  
_"Matsumoto isn't so bad. She can be reliable sometimes."  
Hitsugaya rolled his eyes, thankful that Karin had seemingly bought it. It was partly true, Matsumoto would probably go out for a drink tonight anyway.

* * *

"Damn it! Doesn't he care about her being in a life-or-death situation!?" Matsumoto grumbled as she watched her captain slam the door and march off.  
"Sheesh, Urahara, you better train Karin good. I don't want Hitsugaya-taicho depressed if Karin gets killed. And Ichigo would kill you."

Rubbing her forehead from her hangover last night she flash-stepped off in the direction of a new hollow that appeared nearby.  
_Ugh, too many hollows. I just want to go out for a drink..._

* * *

By the time Matsumoto had already gotten there, it seemed that Rukia had taken care of it.  
"Oh, hey Rangiku-san," the petite soul reaper greeted as she turned around.  
"Hey Rukia-chan," she greeted, ever so cheery.  
Then she groaned, hold her forehead.  
"What's the matter?" Rukia asked, concerned. She quickly sheathed Sode no Shirayuki and walked a few paces up to Matsumoto.  
"The sake I drank last night. And I just had a fight with Hitsugaya-taicho. So that didn't help my hangover at all. Just made it worse."  
"You and Hitsugaya-taicho had a fight?" Rukia perked up, suddenly interested.  
"Yeah, I told him maybe we should go ahead and tell Karin about how Urahara is going to ask Karin to become a Soul Reaper and that he would train her. That way she could get a head's up and possibly get trained by captain before next week. He disagreed."  
"It probably would be better idea to wait until Urahara confronts her about it."  
"But I have to get those two together! That was the plan! They would bond through training!"  
"Rangiku-san! You shouldn't meddle in the love-affairs of your captain!"  
"But if I don't, the two will never get together! My captain is too cold and a workaholic! He would never ask Karin out! So I have to get Karin to not be mad at him anymore and so she'll be the one to ask him out!"

"I guess that's true," Rukia said thoughtfully, "But even so, things go at their own pace. We mustn't meddle."  
"Rukia-chan please help me," Matsumoto begged. She clasped her hands and put on her puppy-dog face. "Orihime didn't help me at all! She's too nice to be able to lie. And the others don't care about my taicho! Please! Wouldn't you like to see my cold-hearted captain find love?"  
Rukia tapped her foot, looking away before finally giving in.

"Fine I'll help."  
"Yay! I should go ask Yuzu-chan for help to. We'll meet up together and come up with a plan!" Matsumoto then shuno-ed off with speed before Rukia could reply.

"Oh what have I gotten myself into?"

* * *

"Hello little one."  
"Huh? Who's there?" Karin called out.  
She was in pitch black darkness. Almost darker than midnight. And she was all alone. Every person's worst nightmare.  
Well, not entirely alone.

"Over here little one."

Suddenly, without warning, a big blaze was lit up in the darkness.  
"W-wha-" Karin turned around and she stared, slack-jawed at what she was seeing.  
There, in front of her, was giant, blazing phoenix. She took a step backwards, afraid of being burnt by the crackling fire. The heat was so intense she felt like it was burning through her soul.  
"Who are you?" Karin finally called out, sweating heavily from the intense heat and nervousness.

Despite the Phoenix being able to give off such heat and light, Karin still couldn't tell where she was. She felt solid ground beneath her feet but could see nothing besides the bird.

"My name is-" Suddenly the roaring fire became louder, crackling so loud that Karin feared her eardrums would pop. Karin couldn't catch the name of the Phoenix, it's blazing fire drowning out all sound.  
Finally, the sound died down and Karin looked up at the bird apologetically.

"I didn't catch your name! Could you repeat it?"  
"I'm afraid I can't Little one. It means you aren't ready." It sounded slightly disappointed that Karin couldn't hear it's name.  
"Just repeat what you said."  
"I'm sorry little one. If you cannot hear it now, you won't be able to until you're ready. You are still human."

The majestic creature spread it's wings, fire popping out. Karin winced as she felt her face come into contact with it. A normal fire would've stung bad enough, but this was a Phoenix, it stung was worse.

It took off, flying into the pitch blackness.  
"Wait!" Karin called out frantically. She reached out her hand, only to grasp the empty air.  
The bird flew further and further away.  
The fire it was giving off seemed to be dying as it flew further and further into the darkness.  
Finally, it was gone completely and Karin was alone in the dark again.

* * *

"Wait!" Karin called, sitting straight up. She reached out her hand, only to grasp her blanket.  
"What?" she stared at her hand, confused.

Suddenly she remembered where she was.  
_I'm on vacation...I'm at the ski-lodge resort. _

With that, she let out a sigh of relief.  
A smell wafted up to her nose, causing her nostrils to flare. It smelled like something had been burnt.  
Turning around she saw her pillow and it was fried.  
_That's weird. _

She then became aware of her clothes. They were burnt and fried at the edges as if they'd been caught on fire. "That's odd," she muttered to herself.  
"Kurosaki-kun," Toshiro interrupted with narrowed eyes. Behind him stood his ever faithful lieutenant.  
"Oh, hey Toshiro, Matsumoto." The two were standing beside Hitsugaya's bed, staring intently at Karin.

"What did you dream?"  
"Huh?" Karin stared them, confused. Why would they want to know about her dream?  
_Why are they both in their shinigami outfits? Have they been fighting hollows? _

She then noticed that Hitsugaya's gigai was standing beside him, terrified.  
"She burst into flames!" he shouted.  
"Hush!" Hitsugaya snapped. Turning back towards Karin, he asked again.

"What happened in your dream?"

"Well, I dreamed that I was in this dark pitch black place. I couldn't see anything. Then a Phoenix appeared, calling me "Little One." It tried to tell me it's name but the fire it gave off crackled too loudly for me to hear and so I told it to repeat it's name. It wouldn't because it told me I wasn't ready and then it flew off, leaving me in the dark," she finally finished.  
"Now, what's this about me almost catching on fire?"

Toshiro ignored her, turning around to talk in hushed whispers with Matsumoto. Then the two of them were arguing again.  
"We should tell her-"  
"No, we should talk to Urahara about this before taking action."  
"But this is obviously her zanpak-"  
"She's still a human. How could she possibly have dreams of her zanpakuto yet?"  
"Surely it is. There's no other explanation. And we both sensed that spike in her reiatsu. Your gigai even says she caught on fire. It's just like when you went to sleep. You would give out cold, icy reiatsu."  
"We should talk to Urahara about this before concerning her with any problems. He knows what to do. We don't."  
"But Captain-"  
"Enough! We'll talk to him about it in the morning."  
"Technically, it is morning. It's 9:45 AM."  
"Matsumoto..." A vein popped out on his forehead. Matsumoto was a stubborn foe alright. And annoying.

"Ahem, I'm still here you know!" Karin shouted, interrupted their heated argument.  
_It said I was still human... what did it mean by that? From the way Toshiro and Rangiku are acting, this is more than just a dream. _

"We'll talk about it in the morning."  
"Technically it is morning, it's 9:46 AM. Morning is pretty much anything after 6 AM."  
"I told you captain, even she agrees with me," Matsumoto muttered.

Hitsugaya had to do everything in his power to keep his eye from twitching in annoyance. He would not give them the satisfaction.

"Fine. It's morning," he grumbled. "Come with me Matsumoto. Let's go see if Urahara is up."  
"Yes Captain." Matsumoto gave Karin two thumbs up and then trailed her taicho out the door. Hitsugaya's gigai then followed them out the door, not really wanting to be alone with Karin in case she caught on fire again.

Karin frowned, she was getting suspicious.  
_First they ask me about my dream. They're both in my room after is over. Toshiro's gigai screams that I was on fire. And now they're going to go upstairs to talk to Urahara. Something's going on and they're not telling me. _

_I need to learn that Phoenix's name. I have a feeling there's something more to this.  
_Karin sighed, plopping back on her bed. She knew she would be unable to go back to sleep so she just rested in the silence. The silence was nice. It gave her time to think.

_I just hope I find out what's going on soon._

* * *

There is a slight possibility of Karin becoming a Soul Reaper :O /le gasp  
Plot Twistttt  
Okay not really that surprising but whatever.  
But this chapter is a bit longer than my other ones so I hope it's better. There's probably more mistakes though cause I suck at proof reading /flails


	6. Go to the Perverted Shopkeeper?

So, I've been thinking that I'll end this story soon, maybe after it hits 10-20 Chapters. Then I'll probably do a sequel where Karin is a shinigami and yada yada. I'll try getting in at least 15 chapters before ending it.

Anyway I don't own Bleach or the characters.

* * *

"So, her powers are already awakening," Urahara spoke seriously.  
It was one of those rare moments where Urahara actually got serious and dropped the perverted shopkeeper act.  
"Yeah," Hitsugaya grunted, leaning up against the wall.

Urahara, Isshin, Matsumoto and Hitsugaya were all gathered in Isshin's room. And of course, the ever present Yoruichi.  
"Well, it isn't that surprising. Karin's spiritual power has been growing recently. It was bound to happen sooner or later," Yoruichi spoke. She eyed the cold taicho as she twitched her tail.  
"Still, to have dreams of her zanpakuto before she's even a shinigami. It is a bit odd," Urahara muttered.

"She does have shinigami blood running through her veins," Isshin grumbled, scratching the back of his head. Then his expression changed and broke out into a grin. "Ohh Masaki! Our Karin-chan is going to be a powerful shinigami! She's growing up!" Isshin cried out to the poster he had hung on the wall over his bed.

_Is this seriously my old captain? _  
_That's our old taicho! He sure hasn't changed!_

"Well, I suppose this means Karin-chan will have train. She'll be joining the lovely world of shinigamis. Ahh, Hitsugaya-taicho, you and Karin-chan will be together, fighting hollows in the name of love! Hehe~"

And he was back to his perverted shopkeeper act. Bastard, waving his fan about.  
"Oh captain! You and Karin-chan fighting in the name of love! How romantic!"  
"MATSUMOTO!"

* * *

"Ah Karin-chan! Are you finally over your cold?" Yuzu asked as Karin made her way over to the table.  
The kurosaki had defeated her evil cold and returned to the snowy, freezing outdoors.

It was no better than having a cold. Freezing your ass off in this weather didn't seem fun to Karin. At least when she had a cold she was able to stay inside, warm and toasty.  
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit tired." Yuzu made note of Karin's dark circles and bags under her eyes.  
"Man, this sure is a lively restaurant. Thought a bit strange cause we're practically outside," Karin remarked. She glanced around noticing the people nearby. There were a lot of families on vacations and a lot of little squirts running around, falling into the snow.  
"Well, it's more of a over the counter type of thing really," Yuzu said as she sipped her hot-chocolate.  
"Wait a moment," Karin grumbled as she took off her purple earmuffs.  
"That's better. Now I can hear more clearly."  
"Karin-chan you'll get sick!"  
"Pffft, who got sick by having cold ears?"

Suddenly without warning the two were doused in snow. "What the-?!"  
Karin turned around, immediately finding the culprit. Or rather, culprits.

Just two dumbass middle-schoolers who were trying to act like badass snowboarders.

"Hey, watch it!" Karin shouted, clenching her fists.  
"Oh _sorry _your _majesty,_" one of them said in a mocking tone. The other snickered.  
"Excuse me?" Karin threatened. Her voice was thick with malice. She was not afraid of fighting a guy. Especially if they were a dumbass like this one.

Her threat was clear as day. She was giving them one chance to back out.  
Of course they didn't. Hence, being dumbasses.

"I said, _sorry your majesty._"  
"Karin-chan, don't."  
"Too late. They've pissed me off."  
Yuzu just simply sighed, knowing nothing was gonna stop Karin now.

Karin was already cranky. These guys had caught her in a bad mood. She had barely gotten any sleep last night and when she did, she dreamt of a fucking flaming bird in the dark.

The two kept snickering. They obviously thought she wasn't going to do anything to them.  
They were dead wrong.

"I'm sorry, what's that? We've pissed you off? What are you gonna do about it?" The other one finally spoke up instead of snickering like an idiot.  
"This."

A fist came whirling at his face, hitting his nose spot-on.  
He gave a cry of pain, falling down on the ground while holding his nose. What a crybaby.  
This had undoubtedly caused a scene. Everyone was now looking at Karin and the fallen stranger.

"What the hell? Damn you! I'll teach you some fucking manners!" His friend shouted, raising a fist at her.  
"You caught me in a bad mood. Dumbass!" Karin easily dodged to the side, avoiding his fist. She grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back and forced him to the ground. His face was shoved into the snow to the point where he couldn't talk without getting a mouthful snow.

"Wow! Masaru-kun, you're getting beat up by a girl! Lame!" a voice called out from the crowd.  
The fallen friend now recovered from his earlier punch, stood back up and aimed straight towards Karin as she was shoving his friend, Masaru-kun, into the snow.  
"Karin, behind you!" Yuzu called out.

Karin immediately turned around and blocked his fist with her arm in time. She then aimed a punch at his stomach, causing him too grunt. With that, Karin decided to end this quickly.  
She swung her foot straight into the spot that every guy is sensitive to. The ultimate taboo to commit to your guy friend.

He cried out in agony and dropped down to the ground. He curled up into the fetal position and closed his eyes tightly to keep from crying.  
Boy did Karin hit hard. Years of soccer had made her kick deadly.

"Hmph." Karin promptly left the two on the ground as the crowd surrounded them, laughing at how they finally got their asses handed to them.  
Yuzu decided she had better follow Karin before she went on a rampage from her lack of sleep.  
_What's bothering Karin-chan? _

* * *

_Why are you worrying about this dream so much? It's just a dream...still I can't shake this feeling that it's more than a dream.  
_Karin sighed, shaking her head. She seemed to be getting lost in her thoughts a lot lately.  
She walked outside, breathing hard. She watched her breath come out in the cold air like smoke.  
"It's too fucking cold," she muttered to herself. She complained about the cold for probably was the 10000th time on vacation.  
God did she hate the cold.

She walked around, mostly keeping to herself. She noted how small the civilization seemed to be on the mountain. Just one school, a ski-lodge resort, a couple of stores, and a small area of housing. While the mountain was a good place to go for vacation, it wasn't exactly a good place to live.

_Alone with my thoughts. Not bad.  
_Karin made a mental note not to wander too far. She didn't want to get caught in an unsuspecting snow storm.

Suddenly she felt intense reiatsu bearing down on her.  
"Is that a hollow!?" Karin gasped, barely able to breathe. The cold-air wasn't exactly helping and this hollow had some heavy reiatsu.

She looked around but there was no sign of the hollow.  
_Strange...I can feel it but I don't see it anywhere.  
_

With a roar, the vile scum finally showed itself. It appeared in front of Karin, towering of her.  
_Shit...all I can do is run until someone shows up. _

"You will make a fine meal!" the hollow exclaimed with a grin.  
_Ah, the usual. The vile scum wants to eat me. Of course. Always me. Dammit. _

Karin quickly set off as quick as she good. She tried to keep away from civilization, not wanting to put any lives at risk.  
The gigantic hollow was catching up to Karin. He was a fast bastard. He was ugly, but he was fast.  
_Dammit! Ichi-nii where are you?_

"Karin!" a voice called out from above.  
"Toshiro!" Karin felt relief sweep over her. Distracted, she had forgotten to keep running.  
"Watch out!"

The gray hollow had used it's hands to knock Karin out of the way.  
"A shinigami soul! And a captain at that!" It growled excitedly.

With a thud, Karin was thrown at a rock with such force it had caused blood to come spurting up.  
"Oof." She grunted as she fell to the ground with a thud.  
The last thing she remembered before her vision went black and she had completely passed out was Toshiro with his sword drawn and the hollow excitedly watching.  
_Toshiro..._

* * *

"Little one, don't you hate it?"  
"Huh?" Karin found herself scrambling in the darkness again, trying to discern anything.

Once again, a blaze was lit in the utter darkness. Karin found herself squinting to keep her eyes from being completely burned by the light.  
"Don't you have having to rely on others to protect you? Chad, your brother, Toshiro, everyone."  
"T-that's not true! I don't rely on everyone! I protect Yuzu!"  
Somehow, the phoenix gave her a sad smile.  
Rather it was in her eyes. While the phoenix wasn't able to show emotions with it's expression, it showed them clearly in it's eyes.

"Little one, go to the one in the hat. He will teach you what to do."  
"You mean Urahara? That perverted shopkeeper?"  
"My name, is-"

This time instead of being completely cut off by the roaring fire, her name came out in indistinguishable nonsense. Almost like baby-talk.

"I still can't understand you!"  
"I know little one. You must go to the one in the hat before you can truly know me."  
With that, the phoenix spread his wings, ready to take off.  
"'Wait!" The bird ignored her, flying off into the darkness once more.

* * *

"Ughh," Karin groaned. She opened her eyes, aware of a cold sensation on the left side of her face.  
_Snow._

Slowly, she sat up. With a grunt of pain she managed to sit all the way up while leaning heavily on the rock behind her.  
"Toshiro?" she called out, still dazed.  
"Karin!" The captain shouted. "Are you okay?"

"More or less." Karin groaned again.  
_Once again, this vacation blows. This is just so fucking amazing isn't it? _

She didn't risk trying to stand up. She was dazed, her vision blurry and her head pounding. She was in no shape to get up.

With a quick slash, the hollow was destroyed easily. It was obviously small fry for a captain.  
Hitsugaya quickly flash stepped to Karin's side after sheathing his sword. "Are you alright."  
"What do you fucking think Toshiro?"  
"You must be alright if you're still being sarcastic."  
"Just take me to the stupid perverted shopkeeper."  
"Hm? Why him?"  
"That phoenix bird told me to go to him while I was passed out."  
"You seemed only unconscious for 20-30 seconds."  
"Well we didn't have that long of a conversation."  
"I'm taking you to Orihime. _Then _you can go to Urahara."  
"Hhhnnnggg," was her only reply as she struggled to get to her feet.

Toshiro place her arm over his neck and his arm around her waist. Under any other circumstances, Karin would have been blushing and screaming at him to let go but right now she was in too much pain to care.  
_If she'd let me pick her up and carry her this would be easier. But I know that's where she'd draw the line. _

He sighed inwardly.  
With that conversation closed, Hitsugaya flash-stepped off towards civilization.

* * *

Sorry for the lame chapter xC  
But yeah, I'll probably resolve things with Hitsugaya and Karin in this story and do a sequel where Karin would be a shinigami. I feel like if I make her a shinigami in this story and focus on that, it'll stray away from the purpose which of course was a HitsuKarin fanfic.


	7. Evil Eavesdroppers

Please don't kill me I know it's been forever since I updated .  
But anyway, it's finally here c:

Please excuse my sorry excuse for proofreading T^T  
Any mistakes you catch would be greatly appreciated.

* * *

"Karin got attacked by a hollow. She had lost conscious for a few seconds and saw the phoenix from her dream again. She said that the phoenix told her to go to you, Kisuke."  
"Hmm, I see."

Everyone gathered in Orihime's small room to avoid prying eyes.

Ichigo glanced at his sister on Orihime's bed. His face was full of concern and worry. For all he knew, she could be about to join him in the world of shinigamis. It wasn't exactly a bad life, but it wasn't one that he wanted Karin to have.

"We may have to turn Karin into a shinigami," Urahara finally spoke.  
This caused a chorus of "huhs?" and "why?"

Ichigo stood up with his fists clenched and shouted, "No way in hell!" The answer 'no' was written clearly written across his face.

"Calm down Ichigo. It isn't particularly surprising considering the circumstances," Ishida spoke, pushing up his glasses.  
"Ishida is right. Karin's spiritual pressure has grown a lot. This was bound to happen sooner or later," Yoruichi spoke, twitching her tail back and forth.

"Until we can do anything about it, Karin will have to wear this." Urahara picked up a chain bracelet. To anyone, it would seem like a pointless piece of jewelry. But if you knew Urahara, it was something way more.  
"This will constrict her spiritual pressure, keeping it at bay. Since it's much like Ichigo's own, it will probably be difficult to control as she is human right now."

"But lots of humans of spiritual pressure and never end up being shinigamis!" Ichigo blurted out.  
"Ichigo, if Karin is anything like you, she needs to become a shinigami. Look at how massive your spiritual pressure is. She will attract too many hollows and she wouldn't be able to defend herself," Rukia spoke firmly while placing her hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.

"I think Karin-chan will be fine. She is a Kurosaki after all," Orihime said with a smile.  
"Orihime-chan is right. Karin is a Kurosaki," Isshin spoke with a grin. "She'll be fine! She does take after me you know."

"That's not exactly a good thing," Ichigo muttered.  
"Oh Masaki! Why is our only son so cruel to us. Why!?" he cried dramatically. There was never a time when he wasn't dramatic.

"Knock knock!" The other not-passed out Kurosaki twin had opened the door ever so slightly, peeking her head into the room. "Why is everyone in here?" She asked, coming into the room completely and shutting the wooden door.

"Oh hello Yuzu-san!" Orihime greeted.  
"Hello Orihime-chan! Erm- what's wrong with Karin? Is she ok?" Yuzu asked, her voice filling with concern as she walked over to the sleeping Karin.

"Oh she's fine. Just got a little dizzy from lack of oxygen. It is quite dense up here," Urahara lied easily. No one would ever understand that man. He could tell a lie right of the top of his hat. It would make anyone easily suspicious of him.  
As if people weren't already suspicious with him. The best thing to do when it came Urahara was to never trust him and never get on his bad side.

"Ah okay. I'll go make some hot-chocolate for when she wakes up!" Yuzu said briskly sliding out the door.

"Ughh." The raven-haired Kurosaki was finally waking up. "Karin? Karin? Are you okay? Ichigo asked, immediately making his way towards her and standing over her.

"Wha-?" Her eyes fluttered open.  
"Oh why do I feel like someone's kicking me in the head?" she groaned, clutching her head.  
"I feel like that everyday!" Matsumoto chuckled.

At this Karin sat up and glared at her. "I'm pretty sure this isn't what a hang-over feels like!" she snapped.  
"Ughh." Karin clutched her head again. "I hate hollows. All of them!" she declared angrily.  
_Fuck hollows. It just had to throw me against a rock and try to eat me. Why would a hollow appear here, out of all places!? And why did it have to give me such a fucking pounding headache._

"Here ya go!" Urahara handed Karin the chain bracelet. "This will keep the hollows away."  
Karin eyed the trinket suspiciously. All of Urahara's items were suspicious.  
With a shrug, she decided to take the chance and put it on. Hopefully she didn't explode into a million tiny pieces.

"Karin-channn, is my beautiful daughter okay?" Isshin said, popping up out of no where. He had a talent for that.  
"Go away!" she snapped, punching him in the face.  
"Masaki! Our girl still continues to punch even in her weakest moments!"  
"I'm not weak!" she shouted, making her headache worse.

What kind of parent is supposed to be happy that their child punches them?

A delusional one.

* * *

"Oh, Urahara-san!" Matsumoto shouted, hurriedly walking down the hall to catch up to him.  
"Hm?" He turned around with Yoruichi on top of his hat. I bet that feline was pretty damn comfortable up there. Urahara's hat was pretty soft all things considered.

"Did you put in the extra adjustments to the bracelet?" Matsumoto asked with a starry look in her eyes.  
"Yep! It should go well." Urahara chuckled evilly from behind his fan. "Thank you Urahara-san!"  
"It was no trouble. Besides, it's been painful to watch those two fight."  
"Yep! And now, with this my captain should be happy on vacation! And maybe he'll stop doing paperwork!"  
"Doesn't that mean he'll have you do it?" Yoruichi said skeptically.  
"I'm far too busy for paperwork! I'm going out for a drink! Bye Yoruichi-chan, Urahara-san!" The busty woman quickly disappeared to go get her sake.

Did that woman ever go a day without drinking?

"Kisuke, what did you do?" Yoruichi asked suspiciously.  
"Oh nothing!" He said, looking up at his hat. Yoruichi leaned over the side and frowned at him. It was obvious he was up to something. He was always up to something. Always.

"Hmph, you shouldn't meddle in other people's business."  
"Yoruichi-san, if anything I'm _helping _them."  
"If you screw up I'm not covering for you."  
"Nyah, it'll be fine!"

"Mommy! That man's cat talked!" A little child who looked to be nearly 5 tugged on his mother's shirt. "Oh sweetheart, cats don't talk."  
"But that man and the cat were talking!" The mother frowned, annoyed. She turned around to see what her child was talking out.  
"Sweetheart, there's no one there," she said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. She put her phone back to her ear and started speaking about business again. Quite a businesswoman she was.  
"Hm?" The child glanced around the hallway confused. He was almost certain he had seen a man in a striped hat with a cat on top.

"That was close."  
"Hmph, you should be more aware of your surroundings. You're gonna get us both caught."  
"Yoruichi-san, you're the one who talked."  
"I do have claws you know."

* * *

Humming could be heard down the hall. Yuzu Kurosaki hummed to herself as she fixed hot chocolate in the public kitchen. Another reason she loved the Ski-Resort. You were allowed to use the public kitchen as long as you cleaned up your mess. They would charge you extra if you didn't.  
Yuzu pulled out a bag of marshmallows from one of the cabinets above and set it on the counter as she waited for the _ding _of the microwave.

She frowned to herself as she glanced at the dishes in the sick. They were the usual coffee cups. A few were "fancy" and a few more were a bit decorative like the occasional snowmen cups.  
_I'll do the dishes when I come back. It's the least I can do for the chiefs who work here.  
_Yuzu had made good friends with the head chief who owned a small restaurant upstairs. He had even let her use the restaurant kitchen to make some food. Yuzu much preferred the restaurant kitchen since it was cleaner and had better appliances.  
The kurosaki twin helped the restaurant in her free time since they were understaffed. She had made good friends with the chiefs and she had also learned that they were the ones who were forced to clean up the messes that some people didn't take care of.  
Since then, she had made sure to clean up the public kitchen whenever she made something.  
_  
Ding.  
_"Yuzu-chan!"  
"Hm?"  
She looked up to find the busty Matsumoto standing there excitedly as she pulled two plastic cups from the microwave.

"Let's go spy on the captain and Karin!"  
Yuzu gasped and her eyes widened with surprise.  
"Are they making up?" Yuzu said, getting as excited as Matsumoto.  
"Let's go find out!" she said with glee. The excited lieutenant grabbed Yuzu's arm and pulled her out of the kitchen.  
"But the marshmallows!" Yuzu cried out, looking at the bag mournfully. She tried desperately to keep the hot-chocolate from sloshing over into the floor.

* * *

"Shh!" Matsumoto shushed Yuzu as she crouched by Orihime's door with a glass in her ear. Yuzu closed her mouth, deciding to ask the question later.  
_What's gotten Matsumoto so riled up about this? And where did she get these glasses in the first place? _

"Mind if I join you?"  
The two eavesdroppers turned around to find the evil Urahara and his side kick Yoruichi. Or was it the other way around? Was Urahara Yoruichi's side kick?

Matsumoto motioned with her hands for the two to join them. The duo had came prepared, already having their glasses with them. Yoruichi squeezed in between Matsumoto and Yuzu while Urahara leaned over them, still standing. They brought their glasses to their ears, continuing to eavesdrop.

It wasn't particularly hard to hear what was going on, considering Karin could be loud.

* * *

"Sorry."  
"Huh?" Karin looked at the shinigami captain with surprise. It wasn't every day that Toshiro Hitsugaya apologized.  
"Why?" It wasn't that Karin didn't like him apologizing, but she was confused as to why he apologized.  
"Sorry I didn't get there in time."  
"It's not your fault. It's not like you knew that a hollow was gonna pop up nearby."

The two stared at each other in uncomfortable silence. After a few minutes or so, Hitsugaya made his way towards the door.  
"Wait!" Karin blurted out. Toshiro turned around, surprised.  
"I thought you were mad at me."  
"I was..." She trailed off. It was strange. An hour ago, she would've pushed him out the door and slammed it in his face. But now she didn't feel as angry. It was as if her anger had disappeared. All that was left was longing. She longed talk to Toshiro again and be friends with him again.

"Was? What changed your mind?" Toshiro asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow.  
"I was mad because..." Karin clutched the covered tightly.  
"Because you left!" she nearly shouted.

Toshiro stood there as seconds ticked by. He was caught off guard, not expecting Karin to finally tell him why she was mad. He had half-expected her to stay mad forever.  
"I'm shinigami captain. You can't expect me to stay in the human world forever."  
"That's not it! You didn't at least say goodbye! You just disappeared for two years! And I even sensed your reiatsu once after about a year but you didn't stop by or anything. You didn't even say hi to Grandma Haru!"

Toshiro opened his mouth, then he closed it again. He then paced back and forth, unsure what to say.  
"Say something dammit!" Karin shouted. She didn't like this. He didn't answer her and now he was pacing.  
_This was a bad idea. I should've just kept my mouth shut.  
_Karin mentally smacked herself in the head.

She sighed and stared down at the blanket in her hands.  
Suddenly she heard crashing outside her door and muffled whispering. This finally got Hitsugaya's attention and he stopped pacing for a moment. He glanced at the door as the noise began to quiet down.

* * *

"Kisuke be quiet!" Yoruichi hissed.  
"I'm not doing anything!" he said innocently.  
"Yes you are!"  
"Hush!" Matsumoto whispered a little too loudly.

Urahara's glass slipped through his fingers and landed on the floor with a crash, narrowly avoiding Yoruichi and Matsumoto.  
"Dammit Kisuke!" Yoruichi snapped. A panicked look was plastered onto Yuzu's face and she was unsure what to do. It took all off Yoruichi's willpower to not punch Urahara.  
"Way to go butter fingers!" Matsumoto glared at the clogged culprit.

It was a miracle that the group didn't jump up and sprint away at that moment for the fear of being caught.  
After a couple of seconds of hushed arguing, they realized that making even more of a ruckus would probably get them all caught so they quieted down and stood still. They didn't even dare breathe.

* * *

"What was that?" Karin muttered to herself.  
"Probably just some idiot breaking something," Toshiro sighed.

"I'm sorry." He finally said softly.  
"What?" Karin looked up at him with surprise again. That was twice he had apologized.  
"I'm sorry that I left without saying goodbye. I honestly thought you wouldn't care."  
"Baka! Of course I would've cared! You're my friend." Karin looked away, her face heating up.  
Three times he apologized. Three apologies from Toshiro Hitsugaya in one day? Surely hell was freezing over by now.

The two were left in awkward silence again. Toshiro stood there, unsure if he should leave or not. He figured that was probably best to leave Karin alone for awhile so he stared towards the door.

"Erm, Toshiro?"  
He looked up, his hand resting on the doorknob. "What?"

"I'm sorry to. I know I shouldn't be mad at you. It was a stupid reason."  
Once again, Toshiro was caught off-guard again. But this time he quickly recovered. He was getting used to the surprises that Karin seemed to be full of.

"It's nothing." He gave a small rare tiny smile.  
This made Karin blush even deeper. As if it wasn't already embarrassing enough. She hated these kinds of moments.

While she wasn't the type to sweep things under the rug, she still hated apologizing. Especially since when people apologized she felt obligated to apologize as well. Unless it was totally their fault for being a jerkwad. In that case she felt like beating them up.

"O-okay! You've made your point! You can go now Toshiro!" Karin yelled, throwing a nearby red velvet pillow again.  
The shinigami captain caught it with ease as always and threw it onto Karin's bed.  
"That's Hitsugaya-taicho to you." He said, briskly opening the door.

He nor Karin were prepared for what was on the other side of the door.  
There sat four guilty eavesdroppers.  
And there stood an annoyed tenth squad captain.

"MATSUMOTO!" Toshiro and Karin shouted, in sync. They always blamed the tenth squad lieutenant first. Of course the other three were just as guilty but surely this was all Rangiku's plan?

"Hitsugaya-taicho! I see you and Karin-chan have made up!" Urahara grinned, whipping out his fan.  
"GET OUT OF HERE YOU PERVERTED SHOPKEEPER!" Karin shouted.  
"This is your fault Kisuke! You got us caught!" Yoruichi glared.  
"I didn't force him to open the door..."  
"Karin-chan, I brought your hot-chocolate! I'll leave it here!" Yuzu said innocently, placing the hot drink on top of the mini-fridge nearby the door and sliding out of the room.

"YUZU GET YOUR HIND-END BACK HERE!" Karin shouted.  
"I'm glad your feeling better Karin-chan! I'll come by later!" Rangiku shouted, waving to the girl before running away to escape the wrath of her captain.

"I'll tell Ichigo you're feeling well!" Urahara said as he ran off with a final wave of his fan with Yoruichi not too far behind giving Hitsugaya peace signs as she ran down the hall.  
"GET BACK HERE! HOW DARE YOU EAVESDROP ON ME! I WILL BEAT YOUR ASS FOR THIS!" Karin shouted, frustrated that she was bedridden. Any other time she would've jumped up right away and chased after them but right now it would only make her headache worse. It was already almost a migraine.

Toshiro sighed as he stood in the doorway, watching the culprits escape down the hall.  
"GET BACK HERE DAMMIT!" Karin gave on final shout before giving up.

* * *

Well, I finally finished this. And they finally made up ^-^  
Anyway I hope this brought the story back on track with the whole HitsuKar thing.


	8. Evil Twins, Bets and Jealousy?

I think I've left you hanging long enough with that last chapter.

Urahara: Aren't Hitsugaya-taicho and Karin-chan so adorable?  
Kah: Wha-!? Wait no, you're not supposed to be here!  
Urahara: Kah, don't be so rude!~  
Kah: You're not supposed to be breaking the fourth wall dammit. We are NOT doing this. You're not even supposed to know about the fourth wall!  
Urahara: I know many things. *Grins evilly.*  
Kah: SHOO! I downright refuse to let you break the fourth wall! *Pushes Urahara out of the screen*  
Urahara: Wait! You forgot the disclaimer!  
Kah: How do you even know about that!? Oh whatever, get out of here! I've had enough of you perverted shop-keeper!  
Urahara: Kah doesn't own bleach or the characters! *Gets pushed out of the screen*  
Kah: Begone!

* * *

"I'm glad you're feeling better Karin-chan!" Yuzu said with a smile.  
"Well it's not like I was going to stay bedridden forever. I'll be damned if I'm stopped by a lack of oxygen," she grumbled.

The two sat next to each other on the moving ski-lift. Yuzu had finally decided to try out snowboarding with Karin instead of skiing.  
Karin reached up, pulling her black ski-cap down as they neared the top of the mountain. She shuffled around on the ski-lift uncomfortably. Things were awkward between her and Yuzu. Well, it was more of a Karin was feeling awkward and Yuzu was grinning knowingly at her. Fuck that innocent child facade she put on. She was every bit as evil as Urahara. Perhaps she was an angel from hell. She could be innocent and sweet as an angel but she could also be evil.

Karin hadn't really expected Yuzu to be spying on her when she and Hitsugaya were having a moment.  
It hadn't really been a moment. They had apologized to each other, that's all.

But if you knew Yuzu and Matsumoto, the fact they had been eavesdropping shouldn't have been all that surprising to begin with.  
It should've been expected really.

"So you and your boyfriend finally made up," Yuzu said with a grin. Boy, did she strike right in the nerve.  
"He is **NOT **my boyfriend."  
"Whatever you say Karin-chan," Yuzu said with a grin. While she was a supposedly sweet and innocent child, she still loved teasing Karin. What sister didn't?

"He isn't! He's just a _friend_," she denied.  
"Well even if you two aren't official-"  
"Yuzu he is not my boyfriend!" Karin interrupted, glaring at her sister.

Sure Karin loved her sister with all her heart but sometimes Yuzu could annoy her to no end.

"Besides, you have your own romantic troubles to deal with don't you? What was his name again? Jinta?"  
Karin smirked at her sister, enjoying the sight of her twin blushing furiously.

"Oh it's not like that!"  
"Jinta calls you a goddess and believes anything you touch is sacred. He's _in love _with you. He only charges you 500 yen so that you will shop at Urahara's so he can see you!"  
"Jinta and I are just friends."  
"Just like me and Toshiro. See? Just friends."  
"So Toshiro has a crush on you like Jinta?"  
"Oh hey look we're nearing the top!"

Karin suddenly changed the course of conversation, cursing herself for allowing Yuzu to twist her words like that.

* * *

The two finally neared the top of the mountain and quickly unbuckled their seatbelts. They quickly hopped off and marched towards the instructor which unfortunately was the same crappy instructor that did not help at all.

"Oh hey!" The twins greeted Orihime and Tatsuki.  
"We decided to take a break from skiing and try out snowboarding. And Tatsuki was getting tired of me running into her and almost stabbing her with my sticks."  
"Ski poles," Yuzu corrected.  
"She almost killed me," Tatsuki complained.  
"Hehe, sorry about that Tatsuki-chan," Orihime said sheepishly while scratching the back of her head.

"I hope you don't kill anyone with a snowboard," she muttered.  
"That's not even possible!" Orihime cried out defensively.

"Oy," Karin said nervously. Boy did she hope that Orihime wouldn't kill anyone. Or run into the trees and get a brain injury. She was ditzy enough.  
Not that they didn't love the airhead and ever-ditzy Orihime but sometimes she could be a little oblivious to obvious.  
Or maybe she was secretly smart and she was hiding that she could in fact be a genius?

"Wah! Tatsuki! How do you stop the snowboard!" Orihime cried as she sled down the mountain waving her arms frantically.  
"Turn the snowboard sideways!" Tatsuki yelled, coming after her.  
"Waittt!" Tatsuki crashed into the orange-haired airhead and tumbled a little ways down the hill.  
"I'm sorry Tatsuki!"  
"You're...crushing me!" she wheezed as she spit the snow out of her mouth. Orihime quickly got off of her friend and held out a hand to help her up.

Maybe Orihime wasn't a secret genius after all.

Yuzu turned around and caught sight of something that made her grin evilly. Unfortunately Karin didn't catch her grin.  
"Karin-chan, I'm going to go help Orihime and Tatsuki!"  
"Wait, do you even know how to snowboard?" Karin asked but it was too late. Yuzu had already made her way to the two friends who were desperately trying not to fall again.

"Hey." A familiar voice reached her ears. Karin turned around to see Toshiro's face. Well, more like chin. He had grown and shot a few inches past her in recent years.

"Hey," she replied. The two stood awkwardly, unsure what to say.  
_Thanks a lot Yuzu. I'll get you for this. _

"So, did you finally lose your crazed fangirls?" Karin asked with a grin. This caused a big sigh of annoyance to erupt.  
"Oh don't even get me started. They chased me all the way to the ski-lodge. I cannot even fathom what they would want with me when I'm obviously not interested in them. Women can be so irrational."  
"Well it's not like you didn't attract attention before. You are a genius kid who looks like he should be in middle school but is supposedly in high school. Not to mention you have white hair that looks bleached and turquoise eyes."

The white-haired genius frowned at his being called a 'middle school kid' but then his frown turned into a tiny smirk.  
"That's quite the description you have of me."  
"It's not like that! I mean, come on! Everyone notices your hair and your eyes! It's kind of hard to not miss!"  
"Ah- nevermind!" Karin just shut herself up and quickly pulled down her goggles and adjusted her snowboard to fit.

"I'm going to sled now so if you'll excuse me," Karin said with a final push of her snowboard.  
"Whoa!" she began to fall forwards- only to be caught by the good-looking genius.  
"You're suppose to wait and listen the instructor," Hitsugaya said with a frown.  
"Well, he's a crappy instructor. All he says is don't fall into the trees and don't fall on your face! Seriously, the most shitty instructor ever."

Karin suddenly became aware of holding onto Toshiro's forearms and a blush quickly spread over her face. She quickly tore her arms away and lashed out violently.  
"I don't need your help. I can do just fine you know!" The Kurosaki girl turned away from Toshiro's face before he could see the blush. Thank god it was cold and if he had seen anything he probably would've assumed it had been the cold.  
He may be a genius, but he may as well have been as oblivious as Orihime when it came to romantic gestures. He didn't understand Karin's sudden reaction or why she had turned away. He didn't even know that helping Karin up had been a somewhat romantic gesture.  
Well, not really that romantic. All he had done was kept her from falling.  
Girls just over think this kind of thing. As much as Karin was a tomboy, she still was a teenage girl.

From afar Yuzu could be seen chatting with Matsumoto, Tatsuki and Orihime. Apparently Matsumoto had come from nowhere and was supposed to be filling out a report to the Soul Society about hollows seen on vacation. But somehow she had managed to sneak past Toshiro and got down the mountain with the others.  
Of course, as expected, she was busy chatting with Yuzu in her pink outfit which made her look like a giant pink marshmallow.

Matsumoto and Yuzu kept glancing over at the two who were still oblivious to the fact that Matsumoto had slimmed her way out of work. Yuzu was giggling as she saw Karin turn away from Hitsugaya, obviously embarrassed.

* * *

"Matsumoto!" Yuzu greeted with a big smile.  
"Hello Rangiku-san!" Orihime greeted as well.  
"Phew. I can't believe I managed to sneak past the captain. I think they might be over-selling it a bit when they call him a child prodigy."

Orihime frowned at the bad-mouthing lieutenant. "Rangiku-san. Hitsugaya-taicho worked really-"  
"Oh I was just teasing. It's not as if he heard me. He's all the way over there," Matsumoto pointed to the top of the hill, not too far away from them.

"So what's going on with the two love-birds?" Tatsuki said with a grin. It hadn't been long before Matsumoto had let everyone know that Karin and Hitsugaya had made up. Perhaps Urahara had something to do with that aswell. Of course it was bound to be found out sooner or later. And when it reached Ichigo's ears he had done a spit take and was forcibly held back by Rukia.

"Oh my, look at those two love birds," Matsumoto grinned. She watched as her captain held Karin from falling with a big smile plastered onto her face. "Man, if Ichigo saw this he would probably beat the hell out of Toshiro," Tatsuki muttered.  
"I wonder who would win? Hitsugaya is a captain after all," Orihime mused out loud.  
"Well he did beat Zaraki-kenpachi," Matsumoto said, pausing to think about a battle between her captain and Ichigo Kurosaki.

"Look!" Yuzu almost shouted, pointing towards the two love birds. Karin's blush was creeping over her face but of course they couldn't see it at the distance they were at.  
But Yuzu could see Karin jerking her hands of Hitsugaya and turning away in embarrassment.  
"I wonder how long it will be before those two realize they like each other and start dating?" Tatsuki muttered, watching the two.  
"We should place bets on this!" Matsumoto grinned.

"I bet 20 bucks...by the end of this vacation!" Yuzu said. This caused a yelp of surprise from Orihime. "You're betting on when they will start dating? Uh...don't you think Karin would get mad if she found out?" Orihime said nervously, shrinking away and sweating in fear of Karin's wrath.

"So I guess she just won't have to find out!" Matsumoto beamed.  
"I bet 12 bucks a month after this vacation," Tatsuki mumbled.  
"I bet 50 bucks on, 3 weeks after this vacation!"

Tatsuki gave a sharp whistle. "Dang. You are ambitious Matsumoto."  
"Alright um, I bet 10 bucks on um, a week after vacation," Orihime spoke up timidly, finally joining in on the bets.  
"Great! Now, I've got to go ask Urahara and Yoruichi, not to mention all the people in Soul Society. This is going to be a huge pool. Now remember, don't let taicho or Karin find out! Or Ichigo!" Matsumoto said as she waved them off, heading back down the mountain and incredible speed.

Yuzu turned up towards Ichigo's friends with a grin that unsettled Orihime and Tatsuki. "Matsumoto didn't say there weren't any rules for this! So that means we are allowed to influence them!"

"I wonder if you're the evil twin..." Tatsuki muttered, low enough so that Yuzu hadn't heard it.

* * *

"So anyway," Karin said steering the topic of conversation elsewhere.

All of a sudden someone barreled into the ninth squad captain. Under normal circumstances he would have been able to jump out of the way but he had been too busy standing awkwardly with Karin.

"Wha-" He fell down, face-first into the snow and the two tumbled down a little ways before finally stopping.  
"Toshiro!" Karin quickly slid down the mountain, only slightly so that she wouldn't fall flat onto her face.

"Hai! Hai! Forgive me!" The stranger quickly untangled himself from Hitsugaya and quickly got on knees and started bowing repeatedly.  
The stranger took off his goggles and pulled down his scarf.  
Or her goggles and her scarf.

Her face was clearly the shape of a girl's and she freed some of her light chestnut brown hair from her jacket that was long and reached down to her mid back.  
She quickly held out her hand to help Toshiro up.

Suddenly his eyes widened in surprise. "You!"  
"Oh, hello!" she gave a nervous grin and tiny little wave.  
"Wait, you know her?" Karin asked, a little confused now.

"She was one of the girls that chased me. A fangirl," Toshiro grumbled, dusting the snow off his jacket.  
"Yes I'm very sorry about that. But if it's any consolation, I'm done chasing you!" the girl said with a grin.

Her teeth were completely white, they had obviously been whitendend. And boy were the blinding. Literally.  
"Thanks," Hitsugaya said a little coldly.

"By the way I'm Bailey!" she said, holding out her hand. Toshiro just looked down at for a minute before taking it skeptically and shaking it.  
"Hitsugaya-taicho. But you probably already knew my name."  
"Ohh, captain of what?"

Karin elbowed him in the ribs, causing him to give a tiny grunt of pain.  
"Nothing. I just like to be called Hitsugaya-taicho," he muttered.  
"Well, maybe we can talk more over dinner!" the girl said, suddenly stepping in closer.

Karin immediately straightened up at this and narrowed her eyes at the girl.

"No thanks," he said, obviously not interested.  
"Oh but it'll be fun! And, my treat!" She took another step closer.  
"I said no thanks," he said curtly.  
"Why not? I'll let you order anything! Even dessert!" She took another step forward.

This time, Karin took a step, getting in between her and Toshiro.  
"I'm sorry, I believe he said no. You might want to get your ears checked," Karin said coldly, staring daggers at her.  
"Oh? And what are you? His girlfriend?" The other girl taunted, narrowing her eyes at Karin.

"I just don't appreciate people who don't listen. No means _no. _He's just a friend, nothing more."  
"It would seem to me, that you are jealous he's talking to another girl."  
"Talking? He isn't even so much as glancing at you. Now get out of here before you bury you under six feet of snow."

Karin's voice was so cold and deadly that it even surprised Hitsugaya.  
"Oh like I'm scared of a little girl who's like 2 inches shorter than me." The other girl said snidely.

Suddenly Karin's fist came whirling at the other's face, clocking her straight in the nose.  
"Karin!" Hitsugaya yelled, shocked. He knew Karin was quick to anger but damn he had never known she would be this quick to anger.

"What the fuck?!" The other girl cried, stumbling backwards and clutching her bleeding nose.  
"Your final warning. _Get the fuck out before I grind your face into the snow._"  
"You bitch! You'll pay for this!" Bailey cried out, tears streaming down her face. She grabbed her snowboard and quickly ran down the hill.

"Karin you can't just sock people in the face!"  
"I didn't trust her. She didn't listen to the word no. And she made the number one mistake, she underestimated me. No one should underestimate the great Karin Kurosaki!" she said with a grin. "Besides, she deserved it for stalking you."

He sighed, knowing there was no use convincing her. "I can fight my own battles you know."  
"Yeah but you can't punch a girl can you?"  
"You cannot solve everything with violence."  
"Why not?"  
"You are as bad as Zaraki," Toshiro muttered under his breath.

* * *

I think there is some jealousy there. o3o And I just realized Bleach is set in Japan which as a different money currency than the U.S. Pfft, oh well.  
Anyway, here you go. A somewhat fluffy chapter that has absolutely no fluff whatsoever.

Urahara: Oh don't worry, there should be some fluff in the next chapter.  
Kah: I THOUGHT I KICKED YOU OUT!  
Urahara: Pschhh, like you could ever get rid of me. I used to be a captain. It will take a lot more than-  
Kah: *Kicks Urahara out of the screen* NO MORE BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL! DAMMIT SOMEBODY CALL MAINTENANCE TO FIX THIS SHIT! I SURE AS HELL AIN'T PUTTING UP WITH THIS.  
Urahara from somewhere off in the distance: Why are you so mean? I am just a lonely shopkeeper trying to make an honest living-  
Yoruichi: Oh can it! We all know you aren't an innocent as you seem!  
Urahara: Oh what ever do you mean my sweet Yoruichi?  
Yoruichi: I mean the fact that you are-  
*Muffled arguing in the background*  
Kah: *pinches the bridge of my nose and sighs* Okay, hopefully this will be fixed by the next chapter. Because we are so not doing this crap. I refuse to have characters popping up left and right. But I do hope it brought a somewhat smile to your face even though it gave me complete utter hell.  
Urahara: So sweet! She cares about her readers! It almost brings a tear to my eyes! I bet Tessai is bawling his eyes out right now.  
Kah: CAN IT URAHARA AND BEGONE! I DON'T EVEN CARE WHERE YOU ARE AS LONG AS YOU ARE AWAY FROM THE FOURTH WALL. GO TO THE FUCKING FAIRY TAIL UNIVERSE FOR ALL I CARE.


	9. The Flour Accident

Kah: I think I fixed the fourth wall up good enough to keep the characters out. It's covered with duct-tape though...  
Kenpachi: *Breaks through the fourth wall* HEY YOU!  
Kah: No no no no! I just got that fixed! *wails*  
Yachiru: Hai Kah-kah!  
Kah: Kah-kah? Seriously? Couldn't you at least give me a cool nickname or something?  
Kenpachi: CAN YOU FIGHT?  
Kah: I'm not fighting you! *Runs*  
Kenpachi: COME ON YA WIMP! *Chases*  
Kah: Nonono! I will not fight the eleventh squad captain and get myself killed! I MAY NOT BE SMART BUT I SURE AS HELL AIN'T DUMB ENOUGH TO TRY FIGHTING YOU!  
Yachiru: Kah-kah you forgot the disclaimer!  
Kah: HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT!  
Yachiru: Urahara told me!  
Kah: Well if you don't mind I'm kind of busy trying to GET MYSELF NOT KILLED!  
Yachiru: Hehe, Kah-kah you're so funny! Kah doesn't own bleach or the characters! *waves at the screen*

* * *

Karin slightly hummed to herself as she brushed her teeth.

Suddenly she heard a fist pounding on the door.  
"Hurry up!" came a very annoyed voice from the other side.  
"Wait a minute!" she growled.  
"You've been in there for 45 minutes!"  
"So? It's not like I've been do nothing for those 45 minutes!"  
"Hurry up!" He banged on the door again.

Annoyed, Karin swung open the door to a fist that was half-raised belonging to Toshiro. Karin sputtered angrily, her tooth bush still hanging out the side of her mouth.  
"What is your problem!? You've been in a bad mood since this morning! The least you could do is not take it out on me!"  
"Just hurry up." Toshiro gave a sigh and walked away.  
"What his problem?" The twin grumbled, scratching the back of her head. With a shrug she just closed the door and continued brushing her teeth.

* * *

"Oy Matsumoto!" Karin called, walking into the "living room" of the ski-lodge. "Hm?"  
She was sprawled out on the couch, reading a magazine with Yuzu sipping hot-chocolate beside her.  
"What's Toshiro's problem? He's been snapping at me all day," Karin grumbled, crossing her arms.

"Hmm," Matsumoto looked up at the ceiling , finally glancing up from her magazine.  
"Seems like you really care about Hitsugaya-taicho," Yoruichi said with one eyebrow raising suggestively.

Karin turned to the other couch that was beside Matsumoto and gave Yoruichi her best death glare.  
"Oh! Today's December the 20th right?" Matsumoto suddenly jumped up as she remembered.  
"Yeah, I think so. Why?"  
"It's the captain's birthday. He just doesn't like to celebrate it. Usually he'd be burying himself in paperwork by now."

It had never occurred to Karin that shinigami's could have birthdays.

_Well, I guess they had to have been born sometime._

"Why does Hitsugaya-taicho not celebrate his birthday?" Yuzu asked incredulously. She couldn't imagine anybody not celebrating their birthday. Especially since every birthday celebration at the Kurosaki household had been loud and exciting.

Rangiku shrugged. "The taicho doesn't really enjoy celebrating. I don't know why. It wouldn't hurt for him to try a little sake for his birthday," she grumbled. "Maybe it would loosen him up for once."

"Karin-chan! We should bake Hitsugaya-taicho a cake!" Yuzu said suddenly, clasping her hands together excitedly.  
At this Karin violently shook her head. "Why not?" her twin whined.  
"You heard Matsumoto. Toshiro doesn't like to celebrate his birthday."  
"He just needs to learn how to celebrate it! C'mon! Let's go!" Yuzu immediately grabbed Karin and began dragging her towards the door.

"Wait! My jacket!" she cried out as she was forced into the snowy outdoors. She watched helplessly as Matsumoto and Yoruichi grinned at her as she was dragged outside.

* * *

Yuzu rubbed her hands together as she entered the grocery store that was not too far away from the ski-lodge.  
Karin followed behind her, unhappy and annoyed. After managing to escape from Yuzu's grasp she had ran back into her room in the ski-lodge. Unfortunately her twin had come running back and forced her to put on her jacket and sent her back outside.

"Okay, we're going to need eggs, flour, and-" Yuzu trailed off, listing each ingredient with her fingers.  
"We're baking a cake from _scratch?!_," Karin cried out hopelessly.  
"Of course! Since we don't know what Hitsugaya-taicho likes, we'll just make the cake half-vanilla and half-chocolate."

Karin could only sink to her knees in dismay. Would she ever be free from her twin's evil wrath?  
Oh how she would wonder how her twin could do such things to her. Forcing her to help make Toshiro a cake when he didn't even want to celebrate his birthday to begin with?

"Here Karin-chan. I split the list of ingredients in half. Here's your half," she said, handing her the torn up piece of paper. Somehow Yuzu seemed to have a pen and paper on hand.  
Well, not paper. More like a old napkin that was meant to be used for later but was long forgotten about.

"Yeah whatever," she murmured, grabbing a buggy and almost wheeling into a stranger. "Sorry!" she called out while her twin sweated nervously. _I hope Karin-chan will be okay..._

"What the fuck is wrong with the damn wheels! It's messed up!" she growled before almost ramming into a shelf of apples. Thankfully she managed to stop in time.

Yuzu grabbed her own buggy and set off in search for flour, leaving Karin behind to curse and holler.

* * *

After a couple of minutes, Karin finally managed to figure out how to drive her buggy correctly and set off in search of eggs. Hopefully she wouldn't break them.

Maybe Yuzu should've taken the eggs.

She grumbled, walking around the store and glancing at various shelves.  
_Eggs, eggs, eggs...EGGS!_

She quickly grabbed the eggs and threw them into her cart, gently so they wouldn't break. As she put them into the cart, she pulled out the list from her pockets. "Icing? Yuzu sure is going all out with this," she murmured to herself.

"Well, well, if it isn't Hitsugaya's girlfriend?" said a voice from behind her, dripping with scorn.

Karin turned around and recognized one of Toshiro's fangirls, Sarah. She had two other girls behind her, one whose head was shaved bald and another who had whipped her hair into a ponytail and had obviously been working out.

"How cliche can you get? Well well? And I see you've brought your two goons here," she mocked with a smirk on her face.  
Sarah clenched her fists angrily and stepped up. "Watch it," she growled. "I may just have to pummel you into pieces."  
"Ah, how is your nose healing up by the way? I could've sworn I knocked it sideways," Karin said with a grin. Sarah growled again, not looking at all intimidating with a big bandage over her broken nose. It was all Karin could do to not laugh. It was too cliche, like something out of a bad movie.

"You broke my nose. So now I'm going to break your face." Sarah advanced with her two goons behind her who were looking excited at the prospect of punching someone.

Karin held her hands up to her face, striking a dramatic pose and crying out melodramatically, "Oh no! I'm so terrified!"

Enraged, Sarah swung her fist. Karin immediately blocked with her hand and grinned. "You're gonna have to do better than that!" The Kurosaki twin slid into a boxer's stance, holding up her fists to guard her face.  
"C'mon!" she grinned. She wasn't afraid to fight. She killed hollows with a soccer ball for crying out loud! And she definitely wasn't scared of someone who she had already beat once.

Sarah cracked her knuckles and aimed at Karin's nose. A nose for nose apparently.  
Karin quickly ducked and shot her own fist straight into her stomach. Sarah gave a grunt of pain, and backed up a little.  
Then Karin swooped out her foot, hooking it onto Sarah's leg and pulled, forcing her to fall down.

With that she stepped over Sarah who was gasping like a fish out of water. She no doubt had a concussion from hitting the marble floor so hard.  
"Your turn," she said to the two goons who were staring at Sarah in shock.

The bald headed one ran towards Karin with a yell. Sighing, Karin stopped her in her tracks with a kick to the face. Boy could she kick high. All those years of soccer had done her well.

The bald headed one managed to get a punch in, causing Karin blink in daze for a second.  
"Not bad baldy." The raven-haired Kurosaki and bald goon were soon in a flurry of punches. Most of them being blocked but not without one or two getting in.

Finally Karin punched the bald-headed goon into the side of her head, causing her to knock out and fall to the floor with a loud thud.

By now there was a crowd of people around them. Most of them chanting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" Some of them were workers, too timid to step in and stop the fight. One of them called out, "Get the manager!"

It wasn't long until the crowd had attracted Yuzu's attention and she had come over only to realize it was her sister, getting into another fight.

The ponytail girl bared her teeth at Karin, almost like a dog. But being smarter than her friends, she decided not to take Karin on despite the fact she had lean, taut muscles and was obviously no stranger to the gym.

But on the other hand, she had known not to underestimate Karin's skinny appearance. It was obvious that she knew how to fight.

The ponytailed girl picked up her friend, slinging her over her shoulder. "You'll get it coming to you," was all she said before helping up a dazed Sarah stand up and headed out the door with her two injured friends.  
Some of the people in the crowd shouted, 'Awww' and scattered. Some of them looked relieved that the fight was over and the timid workers nearly collapsed in joy that the fight was over before the manager had even gotten involved.

Yuzu walked up to her sister, immediately fussing over her. "Karin-chan! You're bleeding!"  
"I'm fine Yuzu," she grumbled. "Let's just hurry and get out of here."  
"You're getting as bad as Ichi-nii." Yuzu frowned.

* * *

Yawning, Karin stood with her arms crossed as she watched Yuzu dash throughout the kitchen.  
_Why am I even here... Yuzu can cook better than I can. And why would she even make me wear an apron when I'm not even baking...  
_

"Karin-chan, will hand me the flour?"  
With another yawn, Karin picked up the flour and handed it to Yuzu.

"Yuzu-chan!" Rangiku called, peeping into the doorway.  
"Oh! Rangiku-san!" Yuzu put down the flour and rushed out the door, leaving a clueless Karin in the kitchen.  
"Karin-chan I'll be right back! Follow the recipe for me!"  
"Wait I don't know how to cook! You can't do this to me!"  
"You'll be fine!"

Karin starred, blinking at the empty doorway that Yuzu and Matsumoto had disappeared from.  
"Dammit Yuzu..." she muttered, picking up the recipe from the cookbook that Yuzu had found at the grocery store.

_How am I supposed to do this? _

"Hey what are you doing?" Karin turned around to see Toshiro leaning in the doorway with his brow furred and his arms crossed.  
"Helping Yuzu bake a cake for you-" Karin's eyes quickly widened and she covered her mouth.

_Forgive me Yuzu! I didn't mean for it to slip out. _

"A cake? For what?"  
"Matsumoto told us it was your birthday," Karin said with a sigh.

A death glare was plastered onto Hitsugaya's face as he stared blankly off into the distance. "Oh really? That Matsumoto..."

"So why are you helping?" he suddenly asked, turning back towards her. An amused smirk was forming on his face.  
"Yuzu dragged me into this. Don't get the wrong idea," she grumbled as she crossed her arms and glared.

"Well. Good luck-" he said as he turned around and began to head out of the public kitchen  
"Oh no! You got me into this mess now help me bake a cake!' Karin said as she grabbed the back of his shirt collar.  
"How is this my fault?" he asked, annoyed.  
"It's your birthday."  
"I didn't force your sister to bake me a cake," he grumbled as he turned back around to face her.

Karin noted how much she hated the fact that he grown a couple of inches taller than her.

"It's _your _birthday. If it had been any other day, Yuzu wouldn't have bothered!" Karin nearly shouted, stomping her foot.  
"Matsumoto is the one who told you! If anything, she should be helping!"  
"But she wouldn't have told if I hadn't asked! And I wouldn't have asked if you hadn't been so grumpy!"  
"So it's my fault that you were curious?!"  
"YES!"  
"How on earth is it my fault that it's my birthday!? It's my fault I was born!?"

The two continued bickering in the kitchen until finally Toshiro gave in. He was stubborn, but no one was more stubborn than Karin Kurosaki.  
That and the fact that there were in a kitchen full of deadly knives convinced him to help out.

Who would have thought that Toshiro Hitsugaya would give in as long as there was a screaming Kurosaki behind a knife that was pointed at his face?

* * *

"Okay, so now we need to add flour-" Toshiro broke off as he tripped backwards on a roller and landed on his back with a loud _thud. _

As soon as the air was clear from the flour, Karin could barely suppress a laugh. She nearly fell into the floor from laughing so hard. She was clutching her stomach and her face was scarlet red.  
Toshiro Hitsugaya was _very _unhappy with the damage that had been done.

"Now...your face matches...your...hair!" Karin finally wheezed out.  
The bag of flour had unfortunately spilled out onto Toshiro's face.

Well, unfortunate for Toshiro, very fortunate for Karin.

"Karin. _Why _is the roller in the floor?" he asked, very annoyed.  
"I don't know!" Karin finally collapsed into the floor in another fit of laughter. She could barely contain herself.  
"Are you done laughing?" he grumbled as he shook his head, causing some of the flour to fall out of his hair.  
"Oh my gosh. You can't even see the flour in your hair!" Karin wiped a tear from her eye.

Fed up with her laughing fit, Toshiro picked up some of the flour remaining on the ground and threw it at her.  
"What- Hey!" This stopped her laughing fit and caused her to glare.  
"Was that really necessary?" she grumbled, taking her apron and wiping her face with it.  
"I think you could use a bit more flour." Toshiro flung another fistful of flour at her face with a smirk wide on his face.

"TOSHIRO!" Karin lunged for the flour bag and quickly emptied out the rest of the flour by pouring it on the top of his head.

"Look at the mess you're making!" Toshiro yelled.  
"You're the one who tripped and spill the flour everywhere to begin with!"  
"You made the mess even bigger by pouring out the rest of flour! And now we're out of flour!"

Even two years later, some things never changed. Those two never stopped bickering.

After Toshiro's last retort, Karin couldn't help but grin. It was almost as if two years had never passed.  
"You know Toshiro, I think this is a good look for you."

Toshiro just scoffed and turned away. But the corner of lips were twitching, hinting a small smile.  
"You haven't matured at all," Toshiro said with a sigh.  
"Says the guy who throws a fistful of flour at my face!"  
"Well you were the one was laughing so much at me falling and spilling flour on myself. It's not even that funny."  
"Oh come on! You cannot tell me that wasn't funny!"

The two continued their bickering once more. That was all they seemed to do these days.

* * *

Karin emerged from the kitchen with Toshiro not too far behind.

She spotted Matsumoto, Rukia and Yuzu locked deep into conversation.  
"Yuzu!" she called out to her sister.

All three looked up and their cheeks puffed out from holding in their laughter.  
"Taicho, what have you gotten yourself into?" The lieutenant snickered.

"Not a word Matsumoto. Not a word," he stared daggers at her.  
"Karin what happened?" Rukia asked, partly worried and partly trying to contain her laughter.  
"Karin-chan! What on earth happened to you!?" Yuzu asked with worry in her voice, but a smile on her face.

"Well, Toshiro slipped and fell into the floor with flour in his hand."  
Toshiro looked away embarrassed. _He, _a shinigami captain fell into the flour and poured flour on himself.

"And then we got into a flour fight," Karin said a little sheepishly.  
"A flour fight?" Rukia echoed, confused.  
"Yeah, by the way Yuzu, we're out of flour."

A big grin was spread out on Yuzu's face. And Karin knew exactly why.  
"Oh it's alright Karin-chan! We'll just get some more flour!"

Needless to say, Toshiro and Karin spent an hour cleaning up the flour in the kitchen. Mostly because of their bickering about who started what.

* * *

"Toshiro!"

The captain opened his eyes to find his lieutenant, Yuzu and Karin holding a chocolate cake with a 'Happy Birthday' written in blue icing.

"You actually made it?"  
"Yeah. After Yuzu came back with more flour we finished making it."  
"Karin-chan was really good at icing it."

Toshiro blinked his eyes in surprise. He hadn't seriously expected them to actually bake a cake for his birthday.  
"Thank you," he said glancing back at Yuzu and Karin.

His lieutenant chuckled slyly as she saw him stare at Karin a few seconds longer than Yuzu. That woman missed nothing.

Yuzu set the cake on the table and quickly dashed out of the room with Matsumoto.  
"Happy Birthday I guess," Karin said a little awkwardly.  
"Thanks. You didn't have to go to the trouble of making me a cake you know."  
"Well yeah but Yuzu kept pushing me to. You know how she is. Orihime wanted to help out to but after she suggested making a Watermelon flavored cake she wasn't allowed. I swear we would all get food poisoning from her..." Karin trailed off.

Toshiro stood up and got off the couch, stretching. He glanced around before realizing that no one was in the 'living room.'  
_That's odd..._

"You know, I'm not really a cake person. Besides you know I won't be able to eat this whole cake by myself."

Karin glared, placing her hands on her hips. "Toshiro Hitsugaya, you _will _eat a piece of this cake. Yuzu made this for you so eat it!"  
"Only if you eat one to."  
"...Fine!"

Karin disappeared for a moment and came back with a butter knife and two forks. She cut out two slices and handed Toshiro one.  
Toshiro eyed it for a moment before taking a big bite of it.

"Hm, this is actually pretty good," he said after swallowing it.  
"What did you expect? Yuzu made it. She's a good cook."  
"Hm that is true."

Since the cake had been so big, Toshiro had decided to let everyone take a bite of it. It wasn't long until the cake was almost gone and most of them were out and about with chocolate and blue on their faces.

"This cake is strange..." Orihime noted.  
"Perhaps it's because it's not a bizarre as your regular tastes," Ishida murmured.  
"Bizarre?! It's totally normal!" Orihime whined.  
"...Your food gave Ichigo-kun food poisoning for days."  
"Don't remind me. I didn't know it would cause him to throw up," Orihime muttered dejectedly.  
"Don't worry about it. If he hadn't tried it first, we all would have gotten sick instead."  
"Ishida-kun, you've got chocolate on your face!" Orihime grabbed a napkin and began dabbing at his face.  
"I can wipe my own face Inoue-san."  
"Just let me get it..."

The two were locked in a wrestling match with their arms and Orihime clung on desperately to her napkin as she tried to dab Ishida's face.

"This is a good cake is good," Renji said, chomping on a another huge bite.  
"Karin made a cake for Toshiro. What's next? Are they going to kiss!? Start dating!?" Ichigo panicked.  
"Ichigo, Yuzu helped make the cake to. It was just a friendly gesture. Besides, you shouldn't be worried about your sister and Hitsugaya-taicho's love affairs," Rukia frowned.  
"Hm," meaning that Chad agreed with Rukia.  
"But Rukia- they're sharing a room together!"  
"Do you honestly have such little trust in your sister?"  
"No, I have little trust in Toshiro!"  
"Hitsugaya-taicho has never even so much as glanced at a woman that way," Renji pointed out.  
"Is it too much to hope that maybe he's gay?" Ichigo said thoughtfully. "Maybe that's why..."  
"You do have a point," Renji said, now thinking about it. "It would make a lot more sense."  
"Are you two really that dense?!" Rukia shouted.  
"Hm."

It was a wonder how they all didn't get kicked out the ski-lodge. They were all in the lobby, being loud and no doubt obnoxious. They had probably scared away all the other customers coming in.

* * *

Kah: Phew, longest chapter so far. I stayed up all night writing this . And I think I finally lost Kenpachi...  
Kenpachi: WHERE ARE YA!?  
Kah: *whispers* I swear, if this isn't fixed soon I will die. Just hope he doesn't find me until the next chapter.  
Yachiru: I think she's over there! *Points in the opposite direction*  
Kenpachi: You sure?  
Yachiru: Yep!  
Kenpachi: You better be right! *charges off*  
Kah: Maybe his sense of direction will be bad enough that he won't find me for awhile at least...pray for me.


	10. Snowball Fights

Finally hit the tenth chapter, double digits hell yeah.  
Anywho, I finally got maintenance to fix that pesky wall. No more wild Kenpachi's trying to kill me or perverted shopkeepers popping up everywhere.

Sorry about taking forever to finally update . School just started again so I'm going to be quite busy.  
However, if I do have enough time, I'll put up a Bleach x Soul Eater fanfic and a sequel to this story.  
The sequel will be more focused on Karin as a shinigami rather than her love life. I'm still unsure if I should do a Bleach x Soul Eater fanfic though.

* * *

"Hn?"

Ichigo rubbed his eyes as he sat up, having been awoken by a strange sound coming from the closet. With a tired yawn, as he tried to get out of bed he managed to get himself tangled up in his blanket and fell out of bed with a loud _thump. _"Ugh," he groaned.

Of course, being woke up at 2:35 am hadn't exactly helped. Especially when he hadn't even gone to bed until 12:05 thanks to the hollows running around on the mountain.

_Ring. Ring. Ring. _

There it was again. The sound that had woken him up. At the sound of it again, Ichigo shook his head furiously, now wide awake. He kicked the blanket off himself and stood up. A frown settled across his face as he glanced at Chad, asleep on the other side of the room.

_How can he sleep so heavy? _

Trying to pinpoint where the rings where, he stood still, hardly daring to make a sound.

_Ring. Ring. Ring. _

_There! _  
Ichigo's eyes widened in surprise as he realized that it was coming from his closet.

He tiptoed over to his closet, holding out his arm in front of him to protect himself. He slowly rested his hand on the handle of the closet door.

And yanked it open.

"Augh! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY CLOSET!?" the carrot-top shouted, taken aback by the sight that was in front of him.

There, was Rukia Kuchiki in pajamas on her phone in the closet.

"Oh hey Ichigo," she said casually as if there was nothing odd about it.  
"What. Are. You. Doing. In. My. Closet?" Ichigo seethed each word.  
"We don't have a closet in our room. And it's more comfortable in here."

"Oy..." Ichigo rubbed his eyes. He did _not _want to deal with this right now.  
He wanted sleep.

"At this point I don't even know why I'm surprised. You did the exact same thing when you were supposed to spend the night in Yuzu's and Karin's room," Ichigo muttered, recalling the same incident where he had once again found her in the closet.

"Your closet is comfortable!" Rukia defended herself.  
"Beds are comfortable, closets are uncomfortable. You have it mixed up," he muttered again.  
"I do not! Closets happen to be very comfortable!"  
"What are you even doing on the phone this late?" Ichigo asked, too tired to even start an argument. It was clear he hadn't gotten much sleep. Dark circles were under his eyes and fatigue was clearly shown on his face.

Apparently there were a lot of hollows running around on the mountain, driving all the shinigamis crazy.  
"I was just spending Soul Society a report about the hollows," she mumbled, turning back to her cellphone and texting once more.

"If you're going to stay in my closet, keep your phone down," Ichigo grumbled. Rukia puffed out her cheeks, reminding him of a tiny squirrel with nuts in it's mouth.  
"I can't help that. It's not my fault the 12th Squad hasn't fixed the kinks yet."  
"THEN GET OUT OF MY CLOSET!" Ichigo shouted, annoyed.  
"I can't help it that your sister snores even louder than you!"  
"I DON'T SNORE!"  
"YES YOU DO! I HAVE EVEN RECORDED YOU SNORING, SEE!"

Rukia pushed a few buttons on her phone, getting to the voice memos.  
She quickly played one out of the many millions she had saved.

Loud snoring quickly filled the room.  
"You can't prove that was me!" Ichigo yelled out defensively. He was absolutely sure he did not snore.  
Suddenly the snoring stopped for a moment and Ichigo's voice came out of the phone. "Die hollow. You're no match for me..." his voice trailed off and he resumed his snoring.

"WHY DO YOU HAVE THAT ON YOUR PHONE!?" Ichigo shouted, his face getting slightly flushed.  
"I like to record things!" Rukia shouted back, cradling her phone.

Ichigo slammed the closet door shut and stomped back to his bed, not really having the energy to fight.

And somehow, throughout all that yelling, Chad still hadn't woken up.  
He continued slumbering peacefully like a log. Oh how envious Ichigo was of him as he was forced to endure the _Ring Ring Ring_ from Rukia's phone all night.

* * *

"Ugh," Ichigo groaned as he followed Renji throughout the merchandise store.  
"What's the matter with you?" Renji asked as he put down a snow globe of a snowboarder.  
"Rukia kept me up all night," Ichigo muttered.  
"_Oh?_" He said suggestively, raising one eyebrow.  
Carrot-top's face turned scarlet red and he shouted, "NOT LIKE THAT! OH MY GOD NO!"  
"Calm down Kurosaki. It's nothing to be ashamed of," Ishida said matter-of-factly. "If you really love her then-"  
"ISHIDA! OH MY GOD NO THAT'S NOT WHAT HAPPENED. DO YOU THINK I'D DO THAT WITH CHAD IN THE ROOM!?" Ichigo shouted, pointing at the silent Chad.

"Calm down Ichigo, we're just teasing you," Renji chuckled.

Even so, it took a few minutes for Ichigo's blush to finally fade away.

As the four left behind the snow globes and started towards the clothing aisle, they hadn't noticed that Matsumoto had been behind them, eavesdropping with a grin the whole time.

* * *

Matsumoto rushed throughout the store, searching for Yuzu.  
"Yuzu!" she called out as she finally found her.

In her wake, Matsumoto had left a trail of knocked over teddy bears, scarves and other accessories.

"Oh, Rangiku!" Yuzu greeted as she turned around.  
"I've started placing bets on when Rukia and Ichigo will get together!" The lieutenant babbled excitedly, jumping straight to the point.  
"A betting pool?" Karin asked a little skeptically. She knew Matsumoto was always planning more. _Always.__  
_

"Mhm!"  
"Those two have been dancing around each other for what, two years now? It's not gonna happen anytime soon," Karin grumbled.  
"Oh my dear sweet Karin-chan! You don't understand love!"  
"I'm betting $15 dollars on this week," Yuzu said with a grin.  
"Wait you're betting on when our brother will confess to Rukia!? Yuzu, you out of all people...!"

"Great! I'll go ask the others. Karin-chan, are you going to bet?"

Karin shrugged. _What have I got to lose?_

"$15 dollars on next week," Karin said with a shrug.

Matsumoto grinned. She had already started two betting pools and she was bound to make a ton of money.  
"Great! Remember your bets! Don't forget them!" She dashed off to do god knows what.

She was probably making some calls to Soul Society, trying to expand the pool as much as possible just like she had done with the betting pool on Karin and Hitsugaya.

Karin narrowed her eyes suspiciously as Yuzu turned towards her.  
"You just placed a bet on our brother's love life without a second thought..."  
"Go big or go home is what you used to say all the time isn't Karin-chan?"

"Hn. I guess." She just shrugged, deciding to drop the subject for now.

* * *

Karin shook her snow globe furiously that she had gotten from the gift shop, watching the snow swirl around. Inside of it was a forest of snowcovered trees and some moose along with other small animals that were hard to notice if you didn't look carefully.

"Why are you shaking the snow globe?" Yuzu asked curiously as she rubbed her hands together.  
"Because that's what you're supposed to do right?"  
"Hm, I guess."

The two walked in silence, listening to the soft snow crunch under their feet. It was nice, finally spending sister time without the subject of Toshiro coming up and not getting embarrassed with each passing sentence.

"The night lights look really pretty. They did a pretty good job on the ski-lodge," Yuzu noted as she looked up at it. The sun was sinking into the horizon that allowed the lights to dance beautifully in the evening.  
"Yeah, it is." Karin looked up from her snow globe and stared.

Was it possible for a building to even be that pretty?  
It wasn't just the lanterns strung about on the building, but the way it was built and the perfect shadows it casted. The shadows weren't eerie and creepy but warm and inviting in a weird way.  
The architecture was simply beautiful, almost as if the resort shone even without the lights.

"I never really realized how beautiful it was. No wonder so many people stay here," Karin muttered.  
"The architects must have put a lot of effort into building this. It almost a steal for staying here at the price it is," Yuzu nodded.  
"I bet they got tired of snobby rich people staying in their place all the time," Karin said with a grin.

The Kurosaki family had never really been rich. They had been well off with the money they made from the Kurosaki clinic. Not rich, but not poor.  
Of course they had their days when they had to pinch pennies but what family didn't?

"Not all rich people are snobby. There are a lot that are nice. Like Rukia-chan."  
"I know I'm just kidding around."

The two sat in silence for a few more moments, basking in the warm glow.  
As cold as it was, Karin felt warm and fuzzy inside. It felt almost like a warm summer night. Except it was winter, there was snow and it was horribly cold. But the atmosphere was nice and relaxed like that of a summer night.

Suddenly they were interrupted by a hoard of Ichigo's friends. "Where's Yuz- Oh there you are," Ichigo said as he swung the door open with the rest of his friends following behind in their bulky winter coats.  
Scratch that, not just his friends.  
Everyone was following. Even Isshin.

"We're planning on having a snowball fight," Rukia pipped up as she pulled her scarf over her mouth.  
"A snowball fight?"

"Indeed a snowball fight! It was all Urahara-san's idea!" Isshin practically shouted.  
"Er- I think I'll pass," Karin muttered, instantly deciding it wasn't safe.  
"Oh come on Karin-chan! What's the harm? It's just snow!"  
"I can think of a thousand reasons I wouldn't want to have a snowball fight with you." Karin muttered so low that no one heard her.

Or at least she thought no one did.

"Oh dearest Karin-chan! You insult me!"

"If we're having a snowball fight, we're going to need teams," Ishida broke in, pushing his glasses up.  
"How about a free-for-all?" Renji suggested.  
"Nononono, I will die in a free-for-all!" Keigo cried out.  
"What about teams of four?" Mizuiro finally spoke, shoving his phone into his pocket.

"I'd rather have a free-for-all," Karin grumbled, adding her two cents.  
"A free-for-all it is!" Urahara chuckled.

That almost made Karin regret speaking up.

Matsumoto frowned, "Hey wait a minute! What's the prize?"  
"Do we need a prize?" Hitsugaya grumbled. When wasn't he grumbling?  
"Yes taicho! Every game needs a prize for the winner!"

"How about the second to last person standing buys the winner anything?" Yoruichi suggested.  
"Reasonably priced of course-" Ishida added.  
"Seems fair," Yuzu shrugged.

The only person that seemed to be distressed about this snowball fight was Toshiro. He sighed and crossed his arms.  
"This is ridiculous. I cannot believe you dragged me into this again Matsumoto."  
"Taicho, would you rather be killing hollows instead of relaxing?"  
"If public safety is at risk, yes."  
"Taicho you cannot spend the rest of your life being so uptight and picky!"

"Okay!" Urahara finally intervened, probably impatient to get this snow ball fight started.  
"Snow-ball fight starts in three...two...one!" He then quickly disappeared with flash-step.

"No fair! No shinigami powers!" Keigo cried out before running away.

"Oh dear Masaki! Give me strength to win!" Isshin shouted before scooping up a big handful and aiming it at the group.

Everyone quickly scattered before the snow hit with a tiny _thump. _

At this point everyone was trying to find little places to hide behind, trees, large rocks, anything. That and they were trying to avoid Chad because he could throw a snowball that felt like you got punched in the gut.

"Hiyah!" Karin cried out as she got Orihime. At first she had felt a little bad because Orihime had been such an easy target. And Orihime was so nice to everyone.  
But it was a free-for-all so she her guilt quickly vanished as she ducked to avoid Tatsuki's snowballs of vengeance.

* * *

Ichigo quickly ducked and rolled out of the way to avoid Renji's snowballs.  
"Hiyah!" He cried out as he fired back.  
He was too focused on dodging Renji's snowballs to notice the midget sneaking up behind him.

Renji grinned the whole time as he watched Rukia advance upon him for a surprise attack.  
"Behind you!" He finally called out when she was close enough.

He turned around with fear on his face. His fear quickly change into shock as he was suddenly hit with a very cold snowball very close to his face.  
"Stupid! Next time you should be more focused on your surroundings!" Rukia shouted as she scampered off to find her next victim.

The strawberry muttered something about 'stupid midgets' before getting hit in the face with another snowball.  
"WHAT THE HELL RENJI? I'M ALREADY OUT!" He shouted.  
The two still continued to pelt each other.

* * *

"MIZUIRO HELP ME!" Keigo cried out as he shivered behind a rock.  
He was suddenly hit with a snowball on the top of his head.  
"YOU TRAITOR!" He cried.  
"It's a free-for-all," he replied simply.  
"But how could you. I thought we were friends," Keigo wailed.  
"Keigo is a snowball fight."  
"OH THE CRUELTY! YOU'VE TURNED ON ME!"

"Hiyah!" Tatsuki cried out from behind them.  
"Not you to Tatsuki!" Keigo cried out after spitting out the snow.  
"Next time keep your whining down Keigo!" She said before ducking behind the rock with them. She heard a very faint "Tatsuki" coming from behind her and footsteps crunching heavily in the snow.

"Tatsuki..." Rukia called out a bit singsongy while tossing her snowball up in the air.  
"Did you offend Rukia or something?" Mizuiro whispered.  
"I may have said a thing or two about Chappy."  
"Insulting Chappy in front of Rukia is a death wish. Do you want to die Tatsuki? DO YOU!?" Keigo whispered loudly. The fool didn't understand the concept of whispering. "Shhh!" Tatsuki said as she clasped her hand of his mouth while peeking above the rock.

"Tatsukiiiii," she called out again with a face smile plastered on her face. "Come out."

"We're going to die," came out Keigo's muffled sentence.

* * *

"Why don't you just stay still!?" Karin complained.  
"Because as much as I hate doing this, I still refuse to lose," Toshiro replied before stepping behind the tree. He heard a _plunk _as the snow ball exploded against the tree.

"If you hate it so much, then why are you playing?" She grumbled as she ducked an airborne snowball.  
"Because Matsumoto will nag me. That woman knows no bounds," he said as he scooped up another pile of snow.

"I think we're the last ones standing," Karin noted, changing the subject.

"We are. Have been for the past five minutes."  
"You're so frustrating! Why are you so difficult to hit with a snowball! It should not be this hard!"  
"You're trying too hard to win."  
"No you just won't come out from that damn tree that's why!"

Karin knew that there were no way either of them were going to win if they kept this up. So when she saw Toshiro reach down to scoop up more snow she took her chance.

But Toshiro had already been prepared. Even in a snowball fight, he thought ahead. He had a snowball already made, hidden in his pockets. He quickly pulled it out and abandoned his half-way made snowball on the ground and aimed it towards the raven-haired Kurosaki.

Karin saw the snowball barreling towards her and she jumped out of the way just in time. She acted almost as if it had been a bullet fired from a gun from the way she jumped.

She gave out a triumphant cry as she launched her own snowball. It exploded against Toshiro's chest.

"Ah hah! I win!" She grinned.  
"I suppose I have to buy you something," Hitsugaya muttered as he stood up, brushing the snow off his jacket.  
"Nah. It's fine. I don't want nothing."  
"You sure?"  
"Yeah."

The two made their way back to the ski-lodge where the others were waiting on them. They were greeted with, "Who won?" and "What took you so long?"

"I won of course," Karin said with a grin.  
"That means taicho has to buy Karin a present," Matsumoto said with a grin.  
"Nah he doesn't. It's fine, I don't want anything."  
"But it's the rules! He has to buy you a present because you are the winner!" The lieutenant quickly grabbed her Captain and pushed him towards the gift shop with him protesting.

"That's my dearest Karin-chan! Always being a good sport!" Isshin fawned over his daughter.  
To which she rightly responded to by kicking him in the face.

"Let's go inside, I'm cold," she said, rubbing her hands together like a fly.

* * *

"Matsumoto she said she didn't want anything," the shinigami captain grumbled as he followed her into the gift-shop.  
"Oh taicho you are so dense! When a girl says she doesn't want something, it means she does want something! You don't understand girls!" She said as she started digging through the clothes on the aisles.  
"Why would she say one thing that means the complete opposite? You're reading too much into this Matsumoto."

Hitsugaya tapped his foot impatiently on the floor, wanting his lieutenant to hurry up.  
"No taicho. You're not reading into this enough. See it's like when a girl says she wants nothing for Valentine's day but she really wants a lot of chocolates and a teddy bear that says, 'I love you.' Men are too dense."  
"I'm pretty sure Karin doesn't care about things like that."  
"That's what girls want you to think. They want you to think they don't care about the little stuff but really they do."

At this point, Hitsugaya was rubbing his eyes in frustration. "That makes no sense-"  
"Ah hah! You should give her this!" She held up a black hoodie that had a snowboarder on it that was drawn in white. On the back of it was, "Swift's Ski-Lodge Resort," in fancy writing.

"Personally I find it to be a bit tacky but it looks like something Karin would wear."  
"Great now can we go?" Hitsugaya grumbled as he headed towards the register.

* * *

The rebel, also known as Kurosaki Karin, was once again back in the living room of the ski-lodge resort. The others had been in here chatting up a storm but they had slowly trickled away, one by one.

"Here," came a voice from behind her. She turned around to see the ever present genius.  
He walked over and sat down on the couch with the hoodie neatly folded up in one hand and hot cocoa in the other.  
"You actually bought me something? I told you that it was fine."  
"You know how Matsumoto get," he sighed. "Anyway, here."

Karin took the hoodie and opened it up to get a good look at it. She grinned and turned towards him with a, "Not bad. Who knew you had good taste in clothes?"  
"I didn't pick it out. Matsumoto did."  
"I'm still giving you credit for it." Karin quickly re-folded the shirt and set it down on the coffee table.

Karin glanced at his hot cocoa in a plastic cup and frowned. "I thought you didn't like hot drinks."  
"I don't. This is for you." He handed out the drink towards her. Karin paused before taking it out of Toshiro's hand, just barely brushing against his fingers.

"Uh thanks. Did Matsumoto force you to get me a drink to?" she said with a tiny chuckle.  
"No. I just thought you would want something to warm you up after the snowball fight," he said as he stood up and made his way towards down the hall. "I'm going to bed, goodnight."

Karin sat there, stunned. He had actually gotten the hot-cocoa for her?  
She glanced down into her cup at the dark brown liquid and smiled.

* * *

Wow I think this was the first chapter that had an IchiRuki in it. I forgot to put in more IchiRuki because I was so focused on HitsuKarin. Whoops xD

Sorry about taking forever to update /hides under table  
School just started and all but I will try to update at least once a week.


End file.
